State of the Snowpack Update - Nov 30 2022

Date: November 30th, 2022
Where: Sliver King Ridge
Aspect + Elevation: North/2000m

Today we found excellent skiing on low angle smooth slopes with true Kootenay Cold Smoke coming down. We went for a tour to the top of Silverking Ridge. The snowpack depth was highly variable depending on aspect and elevation. We found as little as 20cm on windward south aspects at ridgetop and as much as 175cm in wind-loaded lee aspects at ridgetop. The snowpack averages 110cm in non wind affected terrain at TL. We dug a profile at 2000m in a wind-loaded location on N aspect near the top of Silver King Ridge. The snowpack was 160cm in this location. We did compression tests and found a layer of surface hoar that reacted easily and suddenly down 40cm. The November 27th surface hoar was found down 75cm and had a moderate sudden collapse result on it. The surface hoar was 5-10mm in size and was 5cm above the November 5th crust which has 1-2mm facets sitting on it. We don't really have a handle on the distribution of this layer at the moment due to a lack of field observations.

Please add MIN reports if you find relevant observations that you think will benefit other ski tourers.

Whitewater will be closing the parking and terrain at the resort from December 2-8th, please respect all closures so they can prepare for the opening weekend. They will have heavy equipment machines running, so please read the signs and let them work so we can all go shred pow next weekend!