Hi all,
We just finished a fantastic ski touring week at the Campbell Icefields Chalet Northeast of Golden in the Western Rockies from February 27th to March 5th. We enjoyed excellent powder skiing at all elevations despite the unsettled weather and limited visibility. Temperatures ranged from -6.0C to -11.0C overnight to near zero during the day with freezing levels reaching 1800m later in the week. We skied between 2650m and 1600m (mostly supported terrain up to 40 degrees) in the headwaters of Bluewater creek and Waitabit creek. The area received 5cm of low density snow everyday accumulating to about 30cm of settled storm snow overlying the February 27th interface. This snow was accompanied by light to moderate winds from the Southwest at ridge top in the Alpine however there were very little winds at tree line and below. The average snowpack height at tree line in this region was 240cm; it was evenly distributed, firm and reminiscent of a Selkirk snowpack at this time. We measured upwards of 250cm on the Campbell Icefeilds and 300cm on the Bluewater Glacier.
Our main avalanche concerns were the storm slab & wind slabs overlying the recently buried February 27th interface. This weak layer was widespread and consisted of surface hoar to 4mm in sheltered areas and sun crust on solar aspects. Shear results were in the moderate range with sudden characteristics. Due to the lack of cohesion in the slab above it, this layer was unreactive to skier traffic until it warmed up to near freezing at treeline yesterday. This is when we started noticing some signs of instability like cracking and whumpfing as well as natural avalanche activity. We observed several natural slab avalanches to size 2 down 30-40cm on 35 to 40-degree terrain between 2300m and 2100m on solar aspects then. This prompted us to re-evaluate our terrain choices while decreasing our exposure to potential overhead avalanche hazard. This hazard was manageable however, it will likely remain a concern until the weak layer stabilizes.
All in all, a really good week of skiing with a fun group in true high season conditions!
Cheers,
David Lussier
acmg mountain guide
&
Lila Jansma
acmg ski guide
