[MCR] Sale Mountain, Selkirks - April 10-13

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

Hi Folks,

I just got back from 4 days in the Sale Mountain region north of Revelstoke, BC.

Weather
In general the weather was cool. Overnight lows around -5 to -8, day time highs of 1. North aspects stayed cold and dry down to 1700m.  We received 5-10cm of new snow with light winds on the night of April 10 and it was still cold smoke on the north when we left yesterday morning.  Some minor sun effect on south aspects but in general we were surprised at how cool even the south stayed during the entire duration of our trip.  Of note was a northerly flow on April 12 with moderate winds from the north in the evening.  We did not observe any significant loading where we were but suspect there could be some, especially at higher elevations.

Snowpack
In general quite a well settled spring snowpack in the areas we observed.  We skied from 2250m down to 1500m and did not find any significant weaknesses in the snowpack in the areas we travelled.  We skied primarily north and north east facing terrain but even the south skied really well on the few short runs we did on those aspects.  The crust on the south skied like Nakiska with 5cm of new snow on it - really quite fun and fast!

The only hazard that we encountered was a small pocket of windslab(30m x 30m x 30cm deep) sitting on top of a crust with some facets on a short boot pack to the top of a small peak (2200m) on a NW facing slope.  It produced moderate test results with resistant fractures.

Hazard
We rated the hazard as Moderate in the Alpine (we did not ski in the alpine), Low at Treeline, Low Below Treeline.  We were thinking about daytime warming but never observed any significant heating - not even snowballing on the solar aspects.

Fun Factor
We rated the fun factor as 3 times awesome, a really good spring skiing trip in the Selkirks.  Except for the ski out on the Sale Mountain snowmobile trails - they were frozen hard all the way to the parking lot - at least one of us was happy to have their helmet ski touring, I wished I had brought mine.



Ian Tomm
Ski Guide
mmotnai at gmail.com



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