I spent the last few days skiing in the Selkirks. Overall conditions were thinner than normal for this time of year before with many alders/ bumps below tree line and crevasses/ sags visible on the glaciers. Despite this, we found excellent skiing on N through E aspects. We heard reports of suncrust on S-W aspects and avoided these areas. Here are a few specifics from each day:
Lily/ Dome loop - Jan. 9th
- There was a 150 - 180 cm snowpack in Loop Brook below the Lily glacier.
- The Dec. 18th facet/ surface hoar/ crust combo was down 50-80 cm's and giving moderate sudden planar results in compression tests. The crust disappeared around 2250 m elevation and this layer was not as prominent at higher elevations.
- Surface snow was wind effected on the Lily glacier.
- The Lily glacier had a thin and variable snowpack (80 -300+ cm's) and was more broken than I had seen before (see attached photo). We were happy to have a rope and glacier travel gear with us.
- Settled dry snow with no wind effect made for excellent skiing.
- Dec. 18th was down 80-100 cm's.
- Snowpack depths of 2-3 m were less variable than the Lily side, but multiple sags were still visible at the top of the roll on the Dome glacier.
- We observed new surface hoar growing at all elevations today. This may become a layer to watch in the future.
Great skiing to be had out there, but a nasty and atypical weak layer for the Selkirks lurking below.
Cheers
Ian Jackson
ACMG Mountain Guide
