A group of us skied the Torpy burn area Sunday, November 23rd. Lower elevations are still quite lean, with the most recent storm depositing only about 15cms of snow at the road elevation. Total snow amount at valley bottom was 30cms.

Things have started to cool in the recent days and the temperature upon leaving the truck was -2C. At our high point (1800m), the temperature was -5C mid day with a light wind from the SE. Broken skis were the theme of the day.

A supportive melt-freeze crust down 15cms made skiing easy up to 1350m. Above this, the crusts starts to taper off and disappears at 1500m. The snowpack depth at 1350m and 1700m was 90cm and 150cms respectively. Snow totals from the recent storm appear to be up to 50cm around treeline and have settled from the mild temperatures the previous days.

At treeline I observed the snowpack to be settled and uniform, although the surface snow had been kissed by the wind in open areas on southerly aspects. We did avoid a steep convex roll on an open treeline slope in the spirit of it being the first day out and potential for more wind-affected snow. Skiing on south aspects was great on dry, boot top powder down to 1300m, with the limiting factor below that being snow depth and obstacles.

All in all coverage is looking pretty average for this time of year, above 1300m.

Matt Stelmaschuk
Yellowhead Guides