Finished up 4 days of skiing and instructing in the Slocan Range.

Jan 31 to Feb 2 saw 30-40cm of low density, new snow fall on a buried surface hoar layer (Jan 30th) which was unreactive to skier traffic as it had yet to form a slab. We did see reactivity on the Jan 10th surface hoar / melt freeze layer, producing moderate sudden planar and ECT-P results.
Feb 2nd saw moderate to high SW winds loading N to E aspects which produced a widespread avalanche cycle including shallower windslab avalanches to size 2, cornice failures and persistent slab avalanches to size 3 with crowns up to 1.5m at treeline. These were observed on West and North Aspects, 1800-2100m
We stuck to protected low angle terrain, avoided shallow spots and made conservative decisions which resulted in excellent “blower” skiing on West and North East facing aspects.
Additional precip today increasing hazard.

David Bryan
Apprentice Ski Guide / CAA Professional member
Summit Mountain Guides