Rob Owens and I went for a quick morning Hero's Knob loop today. Heeding the advice of the K-Country avalanche bulletin, our main concern was the newly formed wind slabs.

There was about 3cm of new snow at the road elevation which increased to almost 10cm at treeline. The forecast strong winds were oddly very localized to mid-elevation on our approach. We found extensive and variable windslab (up to 50cm thick) throughout the steep headwall at around 2100m. There was no cracking and the slab was bonding well to previous surfaces. That said, we didn't trust it and opted for some steep 'Christmas tree' bashing to avoid a couple of the more loaded areas instead.

Surprisingly, as we gained elevation toward the Hero's Knob col, the wind all but disappeared (though we could still hear the freight train rumbling where we had just come from) leaving 10cm of low-density snow and little to no wind effect in the old uptrack.

The ski from the col into Murray creek was good with the old tracks just visible and no significant loading or slab formation where we skied.

We saw no signs of recent avalanche activity in the bowl but were mindful of not spending too much time under the corniced ridge on Mount Smith-Dorian.

All the best,

Marc Piché
Mountain Guide