[MCR] Southern Purcells

I spent yesterday with a few friends ski touring in the Southern Purcells west of Kimberley. Here are some snowpack observations:

The snowpack was 110cm deep at 2000m and averaged about 170cm at our high point of 2700m. A quick test profile at 2000m showed 35 cm of moist snow under a 10 cm thick rain crust from early November, with 75 cm of settling storm snow above the crust. Some small surface hoar to 4 mm was observed on the surface. No major weaknesses were noted: there were a few resistant shears in the upper 40cm of storm snow and the rain crust seemed to be bonding well to the overlying snowpack.

Ski quality was great at treeline elevations; above this the snow was a bit variable, ranging from light powder to tricky wind slab.

Jeff Volp
Ski Guide