Hello, bonjour,

I just returned from four nights/five days guiding a fun group of québécois based at ACC Asulkan Cabin high above Roger's Pass. We found touchy avalanche conditions during the first few days with the 3rd January surface hoar reactive on steep rolls and unsupported terrain 40-60 cm deep. Snowpack tests easily found the November facets, so we avoided thin and rocky areas where our skis could be closer to this layer, thereby increasing the likelihood of triggering.

Snow stability gradually improved with continued inputs of low density stellar snow up to 20 cm in the area during our time up there. However this new snow was intermittently accompanied by moderate-strong S-SW winds in the alpine and treeline, so we were leery of wind slabs in open terrain at treeline.

We battled embedded fog all five days, so don't have any observations of the alpine nor glaciers. We didn't have the required visibility to wander around over barely-covered crevasses so we ended up just taking our ropes for some nice walks.

Cheers, merci,
Ken BÉLANGER
Elevation Guides