Feb 7, 2025 Conditions Report with Mitch Sulkers

Understanding Different Regions and Snow Climates–Some Thoughts

It isn’t uncommon, this far into the touring season, to start thinking about some of the more committing traverses or travelling to more remote areas. Many of us have been on the skis for three months or so now, and the draw of a different landscape or snowscape starts to pull us in different directions. Here are some things to think about if you are feeling that mid-season pull.

The past week has been quite interesting in the Sea-to-Sky Corridor, from the North Shore of Vancouver through to the South Chilcotins. While not a vast area at all, the weather has by no means been consistent, and storm totals in the past week have ranged from over a metre in southern parts of the region to barely 15cms in the eastern portion of the Duffey. 

As most of us are still searching for powder turns this time of year, it is important to bear in mind that even a relatively short distance of travel within our region can present the characteristics of different snow-climates and terrain features, and that can present real opportunities for the savvy tourer, but can also present some complex problems as we head into a lesser well-known environment. 

While the North Shore and southern parts of the Sea-to-Sky have provided some deep turns and frequent refreshes this week–albeit with some increased avalanche danger–areas from Whistler north have experienced mostly cool, clear skies and northerly winds that were at times moving a lot of the most recent snowfall. This meant that the avalanche problems on the North Shore/Southern Sea-to-Sky were quite different from those in the north end of the zone.

For those heading into the Whistler, Duffey, or South Chilcotins, as I am doing this week, it is important to understand exactly what problems we are heading into, as well as how to manage them.

The shallower storm snow from Whistler north, combined with temperatures in the alpine as low as the -20’sC, have greatly slowed any transition towards settlement, especially in the alpine. Strong winds also created windslabs over a variety of suspect layers, ranging from old crusts to buried near surface facets. The bond is not healing well in many places, and this means that we have both a windslab problem and a significant persistent weak layer problem that may be encountered from below treeline up into the alpine. Juggling two potential avalanche problems is a more complex task indeed.

There was ample evidence this week that this snowpack can still be triggered by a single rider. As the AvCan Avalanche Forecaster’s noted in the bulletin for the Whistler area on February 7th, “small human-triggered avalanches continue daily” in the region.

Unfortunately, the persistent cold is not just prolonging this problem, but in many cases is actually making it a greater concern. As the weekend draws in, folks will be compelled to travel further to find untracked snow, and this may lead some to travel into higher consequence terrain that has been prudently left untracked by previous travellers.

To the north of Pemberton, whether to the NW, N, or NE, the significant problem is windslabs. This is a problem that tends to be more terrain specific, and suggests that riders need to search out areas where the wind has not created slabs over top of old crust or facet layers. Riding has been quite good in treed locations, particularly in the NW-N of Pemberton, and the wind slab problem is reportedly most noticeable at the treeline and alpine zones. Nonetheless, the avalanche bulletin quoted above, notes that there is “a wide variation in conditions throughout the region.”

Our blog entry for next week will be a little late. I am heading into the South Chilcotins for a hut trip of eight days–off for a little change in snow climate and terrain characteristics. It is an annual trip (this is our ninth year of doing this week in the South Chilcotins), so we are looking forward to it. As much of the terrain is in the treeline/alpine zones, we will also be heading out with our avy eyes peeled…