[MCR] Hellroaring Creek, South Purcells

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

I spent today with members of the Kimberley Search and Rescue avalanche
team learning about avalanche safety and doing some skiing. This area is
located at the boundary between the Kootenay Boundary and South Columbia
CAC public avalanche bulletin regions. Here's a summary of our
observations.

Weather: Clear skies in the morning, with thin clouds moving in for the
afternoon. Light NW winds, temps ranged from -3 to -7. 

Avalanche Activity: No recent avalanches were observed however there was
evidence of a widespread avalanche cycle at all elevations during the
large storm of mid-January. Below treeline the fracture lines were still
quite obvious but in the alpine most of the start zones have already
been reloaded with the fracture lines hard to discern. We skied the
lower track and runout of one path that had avalanched during the storm
and it was good skiing on the debris since it was covered in about 50cm
of storm snow.

Snowpack: We did not find the mid-January rain crusts at the elevations
we were skiing (1750m-2200m). A test profile was done at 2100m in a
south-facing treeline glade. We found a generally well-settled and
strong 215cm snowpack. Compression tests resulted in an easy shear down
15cm within the yesterday's storm snow, and hard, resistant shears down
45cm within the mid-January storm snow. A drop-kick on the shovel
produced a shear down 120cm, failing in faceted snow mixed with
decomposing 3mm surface hoar - we were able to get this layer to
reluctantly react again with deep tap tests. A deteriorating crust was
discernible about 25 cm from the ground. Today's clear skies allowed the
sun to moisten and form a thin surface crust in open, steep, south
facing areas.

A great day out with good quality skiing, with the added bonus of being
able to access the area in style with Kimberley SAR's new winter
emergency response vehicle, a 1974 Tucker Sno Cat! 

Jeff Volp
ACMG Ski Guide
CAA Professional Member
Kimberley, BC 


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