[MCR] Monahsee mountains - Perry River - Dec.10-14-08

Here is some information on conditions I observed while working at a Cat skiing operation located above the Perry river (@20 km. north of the Trans Canada on the western side of the range) in the Monashee mountains.

 

Snowpack varies between 80-100cms. below 1800m. and 130-180 above that elevation – significantly less than Rogers Pass which is unusual for this area. That said the recent storm snow from the weekend of Dec.6 & 7^th (@80cms.) as well as the further 20cms. that fell on Dec.12^th has settled out quite a bit and helps to keep you off the low season hazards. Windslabs now exist in exposed treeline and all alpine terrain after the wind event that occurred on the night of Dec.12^th. The other main issues are the Dec.1 crust down 60-80cms., which is not producing any significant results in snowpack tests, and the Nov.21 crust/facet combo down 80-100cms., which though it is still not producing much in test results, lingers as the main issue in the back of my mind.

 

Avalanches: We had no skier triggered activity over the period though the snowcat did trigger several intentional avalanches (to size 3) by pushing large cornices/piles of snow over the ridge onto a steep west facing piece of alpine terrain that, based on the depth of the fractures, appeared to run on the deeper crust (though we didn’t have an opportunity to investigate the failure plain). We also did some explosive control that produced a couple of size 2.5 avalanches out of wind affected alpine features.

 

So for now the skiing is good at and below treeline where the wind didn’t get at things but watch out for the shallow snowpack hazards and give caution to larger features at treeline especially if they have seen any wind affect.

 

Best of the season to all,

 

Scott Davis

ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide