What to Know Before Hitting Up Holiday Pow in Rogers Pass and Kicking Horse

As the saying goes, “No friends (or Christmas) on powder days”. If you plan on ditching the hustle and bustle of the holidays by answering the call of the mountains, we don’t blame you. As far as we are concerned, Christmas came early this week with massive powder dumps across British Columbia.  The Powder Highway between Golden and Revelstoke was no exception. Many locals wasted no time to getting in the white room, and were the first to check out the stability before the holidays.
For anyone heading out to Rogers Pass or off piste at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, take a look:

Rogers Pass:

Kyle Lamothe had way too much fun midweek in Rogers Pass. In his words, "conditions are currently incredible . With storm totals over 60 cm tree skiing in the Cannaught drainage delivers". Yes it does! 

Also checking out the Pass this week was IFMGA/ACMG Mountain guide Jeff Bullock.  Here's his observations (and proof): 

“The deep December conditions are here, with above knee deep snow, batten down the hatches and get out the rockers cause it’s deep in Rogers Pass and throughout the interior of B.C. I have spent the past few days guiding in the Kicking Horse back country and Rogers Pass. Excellent ski quality was found at tree line and below, with the alpine zones obscured and windy, presumably it’s a little wind effected and the avalanche danger has been pushing into the considerable and high danger ratings. In saying that there are a couple concerns with the snow pack, recent winds creating wind slabs over lying the cold facets from last week’s cool temps and the Nov 13th crust which is down deep enough now that it is a hard layer to keep tabs on. Use your avalanche probe to assess the deeper layers or dig if you’re looking at steeper terrain, don’t assume anything when we’re dealing with persistent weak layers, read the avalanche bulletin and play safe.”

Kicking Horse:

A great recap of the week from the crew at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort.  Here's a summary of this weeks snowpack observations, forecast and avalanche results from Skiing Golden.