Conditions Report: Silent Knights
We are happy to report that all 3 staging area trailheads will be open this weekend. Silent Pass, our last trail to be groomed is getting a fresh coat of corduroy as we speak. Conditions in Golden remain as good early-season riding. We’ve been getting small hits of snow on a semi-daily basis this week and that has preserved and slightly improved the riding conditions; we’ve had approximately 20cms in the past 7 days. It’s not epic deep, but it’s also not that bad. Currently there’s 13cms in the forecast and the temps are warmer than usual but staying below freezing. The alpine avalanche conditions are still rated at considerable and low below treeline.
Nice light and snow on Dec 15 in Quartz
Smooth trail in Quartz on Dec 21
Getting it good in Quartz on Dec 10
Travel
TCH-1 Highway
BIG NEWS! Highway 1 is fully open east of Golden with NO scheduled stoppages and overnight closures.: Kicking Horse Canyon Calendar
Drive Safe
Do us a solid and arrive alive. Check DriveSafe.BC for local conditions.
CALL YOUR KMS!
There’s a bunch of logging traffic on both the Dogtooth FSR (Gorman) and North Spilli FSR (Silent). It’s your responsibility to yield to the bigger vehicles and a very good idea to let them know where you are.
Logging trucks going both ways at Gorman on Dec 11
Snow & Weather
SNOW AND WEATHER
The snow has settled quite a bit this week but with 20cms new it is slowly filling in more and more. The main areas are quite compacted and there are still a lot of hazards lurking. That being said, there are still fresh bowls that haven’t been shredded yet if you know where to look.
There’s approx 13 cms of snow in the forecast and the temps are staying below freezing.
KHMR reported 18cms in the past week and 217cm YTD.
KHMR weekly snow report
120 cm in Quartz on Dec 9
Snow forecast near Quartz
Avalanche Safety
Avalanche Conditions
Check Avalanche.ca everyday you ride!
From Avalache.ca on Dec 21: Use extra caution at higher elevations with shallow snowpack, especially where the buried crust is breakable. A tricky layer of surface hoar is continuing to produce large avalanches.
Travel and Terrain Advice from Dec 21:
- Look for signs of instability: whumphing, hollow sounds, shooting cracks, and recent avalanches.
- Surface hoar distribution is highly variable. Avoid generalizing your observations.
- If triggered, wind slabs avalanches may step down to deeper layers resulting in larger avalanches.
screen shot of avalanche.ca on Dec 21
Grooming
Grooming
Quartz, Gorman and now Silent are all getting regular grooms as needed now. We’re happy to report that the mobile cabin in Gorman has been installed and that Silent is up and running! Thanks for the sweet gift grooming ops. You guys rock!
Getting the mobile cabin installed at Gorman is a 2 cat operation.
