With a low of -35°C you’ll think I’m full of it when I say we had a lovely day of ski touring in the Commonwealth Ck Zone today. But it’s true... calm weather and foot warmers certainly helped. And having the place almost to ourselves over the holidays was a rare sweet experience too! And it did warm up to a balmy -17°C eventually.

Snow quality in the alpine is variable with wind affected surfaces ranging from bulletproof wind scoured to lightly buffed facets that skied nicely. Best bet seems to be on faceted solar aspects that haven’t had as much wind on them, as well as sheltered tree line.

We skied large open alpine slopes to 34° and below tree line gully features to 45° with our only concerns being minor surface sluffing today. We avoided shallow and wind loaded alpine areas, as recommended by the avalanche bulletin.

Regards,
Tom Wolfe
Mountain Guide, ACMG/IFMGA
Guided Heli-accessed Ski Touring Lodges and Avalanche Skill (AST) Courses - www.sawback.com/current-trips/