Spicy Conditions in Kootenay Pass
Nov. 29 to Dec. 2
Spent a few days based out of Salmo enjoying lots of espresso and a bit of snow.
Driving over the pass very late on the 29th the thermometer struggled to drop to the zero degree mark. Snowline was met just moments before cresting the pass.
Nov. 30th
The mercury hovered around zero all day. Precip was falling as snow, but just barely. Roughly a foot of storm snow was sitting on the previous surface hoar layer and was extremely active. Skier triggered slides to about 1.5 were so predictable that we got a bit desensitized. Also observed evidence of a natural release on the North Ridge of Baldy Rocks near 2000m. A column in the area produced easy planar shears but compression tests were still in the moderate range. In our two very soggy laps we produced more than 10 slides with ski cuts all with 30cm crowns on NW aspects . Thankfully the erratic terrain allowed for lots of safe zones to watch the shattered slope go racing by. There were about a dozen cars in the lot when we left in the afternoon.
Dec. 1st
Temperatures in town climbed to seven degrees and we chose to brave the streets of a bustling Nelson rather than spend another day ringing out soggy gloves.
Dec. 2nd
Thankfully a bit cooler. The mercury read -3.5 at 2000m. Another 20cm or more storm snow had obscured our uptrack from the 30th. We got to ride with some great confidence on a steeper north facing slope off of Baldy Rocks courtesy of a natural slide that had occurred earlier in the weekend. Returning to the parking lot on a NW aspect a ski cut initiated a slide involving the entirety of the heavy moist storm snow. The crown was approximately 70cm, propagated to a 25m width, and ran 100m. 30 cars in the lot when we left.
With the new snow and wind it is getting more difficult to tell what has slid and what is primed to pop. Might be sporty up there for the next bit.
I’ll get some pics downloaded and posted up tonight.
