March 22-24 was in the Valkyr Range, about halfway between Nakusp and
Nelson. Before we got there, there had been some recent significant
events in the surrounding mountains. A Sr 2.5 on an alpine lee aspect,
probably on the Feb 26 surface hoar; and a partial burial (one hand
showing) in a size 2 on a treeline SE aspect, probably on the March 8
surface hoar (dug out in minutes). This second avalanche was
interesting in that I'm pretty sure that slope had run previously, on
the Feb 26 surface hoar.
We tread carefully whenever we were close to large open features
(basically staying away), but we did travel over steep terrain in the
trees (30-35+ degrees, both up and down) with no whumpfs or cracking.
We dug at about 1800 m in the trees and just got broken results on the
two surface hoar layers. There was a wind event on Sunday and Monday
morning and after that we saw a size 2 slab out of steep lee terrain
in the alpine (probably storm snow) and we ski cut a couple of size 1
windslabs in the storm snow on steep rolls at treeline. On our flight
out on Monday afternoon we did not see any other activity.
March 26-27 was in Rogers Pass, Bonney Moraines the first day and Balu
Pass the second day. Although there had been wind on the weekend and
continued moderate winds overnight Wednesday, there was minimal wind
effect in these areas although Balu was a bit punchy at the top.
Obvious wind effect elsewhere in the Connaught drainage. Path 6 off
Cheops (the last major bowl feature before Balu Pass) has run
recently, size 3 to the valley bottom.
Excellent skiing everywhere we went!
Mark Klassen
ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide
_______________________________________________
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