Birdwood Pass-Smuts Pass-Commonwealth Circuit Off-Trail skiing on 3-M

Avalanche ratings were Considerable – Moderate –Low for Kananaskis but there had been a lot of wind in the preceding days and concerns about wind slabs in the alpine. A group of skiers had triggered a small slab avalanche last Sunday on a slope that we would have to cross, so a change of plan could be necessary after inspecting the slope. Conditions looked good on arrival at the Burstall parking lot with 10 cm of fresh snow and a balmy -3C. After setting up shuttle vehicles at our end point, we headed off up the trail at about 9:30 am. Our ski up the valley was uneventful, but we could see that the alpine had been severely scoured by winds. The crux slope is small, but steep, and has been the site of many “incidents” in the past, but unfortunately is unavoidable. Evidence of the earlier avalanche was visible at the base of the slope, but a new wind slab had not formed, and there was just a small amount of soft snow sitting on the very solid sliding surface. Considering that the slope had slid a just few days earlier, we decided to continue and crossed the slope one at time without incident. The col between Mount Birdwood and Snow Peak was severely winded effected, but the conditions improved as we skied down and were excellent below treeline. Smuts Pass was completely devoid of snow, and we had to walk down the summer trail for the first 70m before finding snow, however, once below treeline it was time to crank turns again. We arrived at the vehicles at about 5:30 pm. The total distance was 18.3 km with a cumulative elevation gain was 1000m. Thanks to: Sim, Damian, Clifton, Evan, Andre for joining me. c/s John.