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Wednesday, January 7, 2009

[MCR] Kcountry Black Prince

Went for a look around Black Prince today and found no good news. Snowing 2 cms an hour all day and there was about 15cms of new snow by 3pm. The new snow sits on a really weak base to about 1/2 way up the classic skiing shoulder at Balck Prince. Above this elevation it sits on a settled 20cm slab above the 40 cms of facets. It is nasty skiing. Not recommended at all. 
 
Around 1pm the temperature rose to 0 celsius and the stability decreased rapidly. Lots of BIG settlements and propogations of at least 20m's where there was none on the way up. It is the first time out of many days there that I have felt very uncomfortable on that gentle, almost non-avalanche terrain.
 
Lots of big naturals running out of the bowls and cliffs in that neighbourhood. The poor skiing and easy to trigger instability is going to hang around that nieghbourhood for at least a few days and that is being REALLY optomistic.
 
Larry Stanier
ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide