what riding area gets the most pow?

[kjb]

Ya Fernie is a strange place when it comes to snow. There could be a TON there on the resort, and you go around the corner towards sparwood and it's all wind blown or GONE! the next day.

Its the Fernie factor

 

[kjb]

KJB,
Then why does Revy get a TON more than, say Sicamous? I think there is more of a mountain trough that channels in the precip. You go to Quartz, creek, and the snow usuall is ok, but go east and north to Hope or chatter, and the snow is a lot deeper.

I disagree with Revy getting a ton more snow than Sicamouse. Depends on where you mean by each place I think. I have always found there to be more snow up the Gorge, Eagle pass area, than just a little further east on English or Boulder. Definately more than the ski hill or the Rogers pass. Ya you do get some lake effect from the Columbia and if a storm is tracking up from the south it will get dumped on. Ibelieve the majority of the precip comes from a more westerly than a southerly flow. Revy is still in the Monashee rain showdow. But we are splitting hairs here. Micro climates influence things more I believe.

Quartz will usually have drier but less snow. Kinbasket lake butted up to the massive ice capped Rockies produces some very fine, deep cold smoke. That wall is an impressive wall close to 10000' high from Jasper to Lake Louise, with icefields the whole way. Mixed with cold continental airmasses it can dump blower over your head. There is no other place on the planet that precips this much and is so far from a major body of water. We are lucky to have all this.

 

[frock]

i've heard good things about stewart, but i think its hard to beat the precip on the coast. the sea to sky corridor is pretty damn amazing. maybe not the driest but definitely pretty damn deep.

Stewart is on the coast, the north coast of BC.

 

[frock]

In general the coastal mountainsget hit first and the hardest. Then the interior get hit next. Caribous/ monashees next. Followed by the selkirks,purcells and lastly the rockies. Each time a storm has to pass over a range ithas to dump enough load to lighten up to get over. By the time the storm makes it way to the rockiesit has unleashed most of its moisture content. Hence shallower snowpacks in therockies (and more avalanche issues). The bigger the lift, the bigger the dump.There are many more variables and exceptions to this though. Storm direction, Continental/maritime airmasses, bodies of water andsuch. Just look at Fernies lizard rangeor the pine pass areas. They’re in the rockies but have large snowpacks in general.
Mt Washingtons ski hill on theisland has some major snow fall records. Same as the north coasts Kitimat area,it has a 24 hr snowfall record. Coastal snow packs are the deepest usually. Followedby the monashees, then the selkirks, then the purcels and finally the rockies.
Then you get into qualities of thesnow. Wetter snows to the west and southand dryer snow to the east and north. The higher, the dryer it is as well. A 3’ wet dump will be boot deep in 24 hrswhere 3’ of dry snow will still be thigh deep the next day. Coastal elephantsnot ~ interior cold smoke.
Everywhere has it pros and cons. As long asyou are playing that’s all that counts.

In northeast BC there are no Selkirks or Monashees between the Coastals and Rockies. May be the reason for the Pine Pass snow??????

 

[kjb]

In northeast BC there are no Selkirks or Monashees between the Coastals and Rockies. May be the reason for the Pine Pass snow??????

Exactly.
The interior ranges end on the north end with the Fraser river. The south end is more or less the us border. The cascades come up from the states and end just across the border over by Princeton. Storms from Washington track across Idaho and Montana and hit the Rockies with more of a wallop. Mix that with a colder airmass and you've got some heavy precip. The Fernie factor.

 

[ryan#1]

Yup Stewart is about 2metres above the high tide mark.

All of the long inlets (Stewart, Kitimat, Nass, Whistler, etc) along the BC coast get hammered with snow from the cold outflow hitting the big winter storms rolling off the ocean. Open google earth and look at the mass of white north of Vancouver to the border. The interior gets the left overs but the cold interior pow is hard to beat. The other downfall of endless coastal pow is there are not a lot of bluebird days. BC sledding in general is just pretty damn sweet.

 

[old mountain man]

Granduc mill site by Stewart. Will post a summer shot as well. This is BIG snow.

 

[old mountain man]

Summer shot of Granduc mill site.

 

[OOC ZigZag]

Stewart would prob be the overall greatest depth. The Fernie area is vast with Morrissey area,21mile, Harvey,Sodas,Meca, to name a few. The skiers on the hill have great conditions but the sledders have better with access to 8000' elev's.

 

[medler]

I allways love summer and winter pics..Thanks!!

 

[capt. crunch]

I've lived in Whistler/Pemberton, Fernie, all over the West Kootenays, and now Revy. The most pow is definitely the Coastal areas. The best pow starts in the West Koots and goes through Revy, Blue River and(never been here correct me if im wrong)Valemount. And I believe the lake effect plays a large part in this.

 

[Toyboy]

Deepest I've ever ridden in was in Montana 54" in two days. Had a hard time going on a flat trail into the ridding area passed some short tracks stuck 50ft from the parking lot all 5 of them in a row.lol

 

[scrfce]

View attachment 137697

Granduc mill site by Stewart. Will post a summer shot as well. This is BIG snow.

This place looks awesome,,,betcha its not to busy either....well guess it wouldnt really matter with the size of it

 

[snopro]

I've heard Stewart is the place before..

 

[ferniesnow]

I would love to go up there and ride for 2 weeks............it would be a blast!

 

[ferniesnow]

It would take 3-4 days of long driving just to get there........

 

[ryan#1]

I've seen some pretty crazy dumps here on the north coast but i think this one from Van Island is the biggest i've heard of..

Record snowfall buries Mount Washington - British Columbia - CBC News

 

[MtnMaster]

The deepest officially recorded snowpack in Canada was recorded in the winter of 71-72 just NW of Revy..... 80.25 feet!!

Quote taken...... "It is likely that probably the snowiest regions in the world are in the coastal mountains of British Columbia and southern Alaska above the 3,000 foot level. Unfortunately, there are no weather sites to make measurements in these areas."

"The snowiest place we have measurements from (historically-speaking) in North America are the two sites in the mountains of western Washington (both situated around 5,000-6,000 feet) on the slopes of Mt. Rainier and Mt. Baker. At both places world records have been established for greatest annual snowfall:

Greatest seasonal snowfall: 1,140” at Mount Baker Ski Resort 1998-1999

Greatest 12-month snowfall: 1,224.5” at Paradise Rainier Ranger Station between Feb. 19, 1971 and Feb. 18, 1972."


"Impressive as the depths recorded in North America might seem, the deepest snow on earth accumulates in the Japanese Alps of Honshu Island around the 2,000-6,000’ level. The average annual snowfall is estimated to be in the 1200-1500” range. Thats 100-125 feet!!"

 

[frock]

It would take 3-4 days of long driving just to get there........

Are you talking from Fernie to Stewart??? Shouldn't take you more than 1 long day or 1 and a half at most. It's only 7 to 8 hours from Prince George to Stewart, depending on how heavy your foot is of course.

 

[snopro]

Are you talking from Fernie to Stewart??? Shouldn't take you more than 1 long day or 1 and a half at most. It's only 7 to 8 hours from Prince George to Stewart, depending on how heavy your foot is of course.

Are you including stopping every 20 minutes to do a hun run though? Lmao!