This week we went back and visited some of the places in the South Rockies that had shown some of the weakest snowpacks in mid January. These were mostly areas with thin, shallow snowpacks and/or areas with well-defined weak layers such as the November 29th surface hoar layer.

Although we still found some less than ideal snowpack structure, with firm layers over weak layers, we are seeing an over all settling and bonding of the snowpack that has resulted in an increase in stability. We have seen a marked decline in natural and human triggered avalanches in the region, as well as much improved stability tests on a variety of aspects and elevations.

Below: Snowpack sample in the Elk Valley North. The November 29th surface hoar layer is still visible, but is bonding to the snow around it and becoming very difficult to trigger. We are keeping an eye on another surface hoar layer buried on January 22nd, but right now it lacks a cohesive slab on top that would make it an current avalanche problem.

With the better stability, we are once again gaining confidence in skiing and riding in some bigger avalanche terrain we were avoiding mid month. The weak layers in the snowpack are getting much more difficult to trigger, but we have not forgotten about them. Areas with very thin snowpacks, especially near ridge tops or rocky outcrops, are still potential trigger points with localized failures having the potential to propagate into deep persistent weak layers. The “sweet spots” or “trigger points” are likely much harder to find than a couple of weeks ago, but we are still considering the consequences of triggering a larger avalanche on a particular piece of terrain before jumping in. For more information on how to manage “low probability/high consequence avalanche conditions”, check out Karl’s blog post.

Below: Great to be back to skiing in avalanche terrain again. Now if only we could get a little more snow!