Long sunny days, warm temperatures, high-elevation adventures: ski touring (or splitboarding) in Spring is by far my favourite activity. Whether you’re bagging a high peak with skis strapped to your back or skiing the vast expanse of a crevassed glacier, spring ski touring has its own rules that differ from the rest of the season. The weather is harder to forecast, the snowpack undergoes large scale throughout the day and the right gear is required to manage specific spring conditions. You’ll find written below the basics of spring ski touring.

Temperamental spring weather

While advancements in weather forecasting models and access to free data have made planning for ski tours a lot easier, there’s no denying that spring weather patterns are temperament and hard to predict. As the sun hangs high in the sky and warms up our snow surface, it creates a vertical air mass movement called convection. In terms, this forms convective clouds that can develop into convective storms, the same storms that generate hail. They come in with very little notice, oftentimes accompanied by strong winds and tend to generate a ton of snowfall. What it all boils down to: spring weather is unpredictable. You may find yourself skiing a sweet glacier on a bluebird day and navigating crevasses in a whiteout on the same day. Generally speaking, Spring weather is characterized by warm daytime temperatures (possibly above freezing) followed by cold nights and a re-freeze. That’s called a melt-freeze cycle.

Timing is everything!

When I say spring ski touring, you probably think of “corn” skiing. Let’s backtrack for a moment and discuss the “crust” cycle, daytime warming and overnight recovery. It’s called the spring diurnal cycle. In the BC Interior, the cycle usually starts sometime in April when a thick melt-freeze crust forms on the snowpack’s surface by either warm temperatures, high-elevation rain or solar radiation. During bouts of clear weather, daytime warming and solar radiation warm the surface snow until it begins to melt. Overnight, the melted surface snow will freeze if temperatures dip below 0°C which they usually do. This phenomenon is called overnight recovery. Over many days of repeated solar radiation, a thick, supportive crust will form on the surface. That’s when the famed corn skiing comes into play. Timing is everything here! If you hit it at the appropriate morning timing and on the correct aspect, you’ll find snow that just began the melting process and where the crust is still supportive to skier traffic. The first time you get that feeling, it’s magical! Alternatively, you can also find great corn skiing at the end of the resort skiing season. Just seek out the solar groomers!

The fabled spring corn cycle

Corn skiing is a part of a cycle – all good things must end. With increasing temperature and solar radiation, the partly-melted snow will eventually turn to slush, worsening ski quality and making it more difficult to get down the slope. At the end of the spectrum, the entire snowpack will be slush: an isothermal snowpack. There’s no one way to describe the feeling. It’s like gliding through a thick stew and especially hard on the lower joints. I’ve spent many days slogging up and down slopes in isothermal conditions on spring ski traverses. It’s horrible, downright dangerous and should be avoided if at all possible. Similarly, I’ve skied on refrozen snow where my skis were chattering to the point my teeth might fall out. The reality of spring ski touring is that you have to go out with a clear objective in mind knowing the ski quality might be lacking. At the very least, you’ll have a grand tale to discuss at the bar!

The spectrum of avalanche hazard in spring

Due to the spring diurnal cycle, the avalanche hazard varies widely throughout the day. At first light when temperatures are cool and the surface is capped by a widespread crust, the hazard may be at an all-time low. The avalanche problems are essentially frozen in the snowpack. As the day rolls into the afternoon, solar input and daytime warming will break down the melt-freeze crust, spiking the avalanche hazard. Dry loose avalanches will begin to pour down headwalls and the likelihood of skier-triggered avalanches will naturally increase. Snow shedding from trees and pinwheeling is a telltale sign of rapid warming (see signs of avalanche instability). That’s why timing is so important when planning ski tours in Spring, whether you’re travelling on northerly aspects to avoid the sun or on southerly aspects to chase some corn.

Here are a few avalanche problems commonplace in Spring.

Fear the heat

Drastic warming events happen all the time and are becoming more frequent with climate change. I’ve seen those stinking-hot weather systems barrel through the middle of January. Most often, they’ll arrive in two forms during the bulk of the spring ski touring season, in March and April.