Hi all,

We just wrapped up a 5day ski touring basecamp in a remote corner of the Northwest Coast region March 5-9, 2022. Mount Atna (2721m) is located about 70km Southeast of Terrace BC near the headwaters of the Clore River. We access the area with Canadian helicopter from Terrace. Our camp was situated at treeline (1300m) near a pass between the Atna and Clore Rivers on the East side of the Kitimat Range. It provided a good base for exploring various valleys with interesting/varied terrain.

The weather during our trip was a mix of sun and cloud, moderate to strong winds, and generally quite mild. During the first 2 days we observed above freezing temperatures in the alpine. We benefited from good overnight freezes throughout. The combination of high winds, strong solar input, and warm temps made for tricky skiing conditions normally associated with advanced Spring weather. We skied on all aspects between 2100m and 1000m. Breakable crust on all solar aspects was observed but it also included some lower angle northerly aspects. A temperature crust on Northerly aspects was present below 1100m. These crusts were complemented by widespread wind affect in alpine and treeline areas including some lovely sastrugi! Needless to say, quality skiing was isolated! The best skiing was found on Northeast aspects in lower alpine/upper treeline areas. Trail breaking was very easy, and the views made out for challenging skiing conditions.

The snowpack in this area was much more reminiscent of inland coastal regions. Depth and distribution varied drastically from very thin on traditional windward areas to very deep in lee ward areas. We measured 240cm of snow on the ground at our camp location (1300m). Coverage on the glaciers was deeper and upwards of 350cm. We didn’t travel on the glaciers as much as anticipated due to the strong alpine winds however, coverage was visibly thinner in most wind exposed areas. A snowpack test on an East aspect at 1500m on a glacier produced a hard/sudden compression test result down 60cm in a facet layer below the mid February crust. We did not observe any signs of instability during our trip. Surface hoar growth to 5mm was observed in sheltered locations as of yesterday.

Avalanche wise, we only observed a small amount of activity and generally earlier in the trip. We saw small pockets of wind slabs to size 1.5 in steep alpine lee features and loose wet avalanche to size 2 on very steep solar aspects in the lower alpine. All the activity tapered off quickly in coastal fashion with cooling temperatures later in the trip.

Of note, this area is located inside the Northern part of the new Great Bear Heli Skiing (GBHS) tenure. Special thanks to them for graciously allowing us to use this area for our trip.

All in all, a great start to the basecamp season!

David Lussier
acmg mountain guide
summitmountainguides.com