Northwest B.C. experienced a very unusual spring this year. April was epic with well below average temps and two solid storms cycles mid month and very end of month dumping 130cms and 40 cms respectively. This provided a few great windows of deep pow skiing and the stoke was high. On May 4th, a dramatic weather change occurred and basically flip flopped the temps...from cool and low freezing levels to hot and sunny for the last prit near full month...July/August temps and freezing levels slaughtered the snowpack producing record melt rates up to 30cms a day at lower elevation solar slopes. North aspects above treeline were slower to respond to the onslaught of the horrid heat and still harbor a solid 200-250cms of snowpack.
A zone fairly close to town here in Terrace allows for logging road access to snowline and the bottom of a good ski run with little steep shots off a ridgeline. Carefully monitoring the snowline from valley bottom makes it possible to time a perfect window of drive to tailgate skiing. Spent a few days slaying the may goods while a guy could park truck on road and skin from and ski back down without any off snow hiking. It was insane how fast the very bottom melted out though...what was a good 70-100cm snowpack on may 21 was reduced to a thin patch at roadside a few days later with a few very thinly connecting necks of white to offer a clean skin and ski line to the continuous deeper snowpack about 300 feet up from the road.
Twas great fun to slay in may. The gopro edit pretty much tells the rest of the story...
https://vimeo.com/129056318
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