Having just spent a week in the Valkyr Range we thought it would be good to pass on a few observations. As has been consistently communicated on the Avalanche Canada bulletin, the south end of the South Columbias and the Kootenay Boundary district snowpacks have been subject to a variety of persistent and deep persistent weak layers this winter.

We found their forecasts to be very accurate and this complexity was highlighted by one test profile on a SE aspect where we found five persistent weak layers in the top 150cm (with a few more buried below), all of which consistently produced either sudden planar or sudden collapse test results in the moderate to hard range. These are mostly crusts/facet combinations which made it difficult to isolate a larger block necessary to do an extended column test with the amount of time we had available (see attached photo from 2200m SE aspect). We felt the possibility of avalanches in larger terrain stepping down to some of these deeper layers was very real, and these results were more than enough to convince us that choosing moderate terrain without too much overhead hazard was the simplest answer on solar aspects!

Beware the ides of March!

Marc Piché
Lilla Molnar