We skied in today Connaught Creek today to check out conditions after the storm. We started by going up to Bruins Pass and skiing 8812 Bowl. It was so good we went back up and skied Bruins Ridge and then finished with Niccy’s Notch, hard to believe after so much rain and wind yesterday in Revelstoke

North Bowl, Niccy’s Notch and STS had all avalanched during the storm with debris down to the creek, although most of the fracture lines had already blown in with new snow. We saw several other small avalanches on all aspects that had also blown in with snow so it was hard to tell how big they were or what layer was involved.

We had one whumph today on the way up Cheops above Balu Pass in a wind loaded area. Apart from the recent avalanches this was the only sign of instability we saw today.

Pole probing and digging showed a crust below the storm snow from 30-50cm deep, gradually getting thinner up to around 1700m (it may have gone higher but we didn’t notice it).

The storm snow (around 50-80cm) had a stiffer layer (presumably from warm temperatures and wind) near the surface about 20cm thick with 5-10cm fluff on top. Sometimes this held the weight of a skier and sometimes we punched through.

Everything skied really well and most areas we skied had no new wind effect.

Alex Geary (Mountain Guide)
Madeleine Martin-Preney (Ski Guide)
Will Woods (Apprentice Ski Guide)
Mark Corbett (Ski Guide)