We toured Magpie up to 4200′ and dug a pit on a north facing slope. We didn’t notice any alarming signs as we traveled and we did a quick stability test before we stepped out into bigger terrain to check ourselves. Our test did not alter us to any obvious signs of failure. Winds were  [ Read More ]

Broke trail for the the standard uptrack to Magpie lower apron and into the upper bowl. Noticed the snowpack seemed shallower than usual in the lower apron, probed around at 2700 feet and found the snow depth to be only 140-160 cm. Noted surface hoar on top of the snow in the lower apron, between 2700-3500 feet.  [ Read More ]

Had been touring around the Notch for a bit, after last night’s easterly winds some wind slabs had been triggered on localized rollovers without major propagation. A couple of these slabs released, around 30 cms deep. Lightly snowing all day, around 3″ of new snow. Good snow, as skiing means.  [ Read More ]

Lunch ski with 3 goals: look at old surface hoar, see if wind was making the turn into Crow Pass, and get a couple mellow laps. Found 2 out of 3 (no wind).  [ Read More ]

Skinned from Crow Creek Road into the lower Magpie Bowl. Stopped skinning before the choke up into Crystal Palace. Valley fog/low clouds moving in and out with sun peaking through, had moments of visibility to mountain tops and saw no slab avalanches anywhere in the region. Observed at least 1 point release/dry loose slide (D1  [ Read More ]