A brief update of the ski touring conditions over this past week on the western edge of the Monashees, 30 minutes west of Revelstoke. On December 17th we found ourselves breaking through the week-long valley cloud and enjoying bright sunshine and a surprisingly good day of skiing on re-crystallized surface snow and a blanket of ‘trophy sized’ surface hoar. Though there was little concern for avalanche hazard that day, the writing was on the wall for things to come with the next storm system. The faceted surface snow that was providing for such good skiing today would soon be covered with the forecasted new snow…
The snow pack varied in depth from 85cm at 1700m, to an average of 120cm at 2000m. A couple of quick profiles showed a solid, pencil-hard base layer of 50-60cm. Just deep and strong enough to keep your skis from hitting the logs and stumps which are still very obvious. Directly above this were the remnants of an early December rain crust (2cm/ 1F+), which the typical facets above and below. And above these facets were another 40-60cm of facets and mix forms, blanketed by the aforementioned surface hoar. Felt a bit like ski touring in the
Yesterday morning we awoke to a blanket of new snow in Revelstoke and with high expectations, drove west to exactly the same location. And what a difference a few days can make! We had arrived expecting to find 20cm of new snow and a ‘touchy’, but easily manageable, surface instability. What we found instead was 2-5cm of new snow overlying the surface hoar and facets, then covered by a 2cm breakable rain crust that extended as high as the terrain would allow (2040m). The ski quality was poor. But more importantly, the surface hoar and facets are now protected by the rain crust in this area, and it’s looking like we’ll have a lingering layer to watch through the holiday season. As it stands, the new December 20th layer will now require more ‘load’ to become reactive than it would have with out the rain crust. And the consequences of a slab release would be bigger as well.
But who knows, maybe the forecasted rain will flush things out today and tomorrow? Never thought I’d hope for some rain!
Have a safe holiday season everyone!
Paul Norrie