[MCR] Monashee Mountains, Dec 9th, 2009. Glide cracks and the snowpack.

Just finished 2 weeks skiing in the Western Monashees(Mustang Powder Lodge), north of the TCH and west of km 21 on the Perry River Rd. NE of the Gorge ck.

Generally, as of the afternoon of Dec.8th, we had a strong early season snowpack. Lots of strong Northerly winds have beaten up the alpine and into treeline. So the alpine ski quality was poor and there is still some concerns about skier triggering windslabs up high. Below treeline it is a different world, we were calling the snow stability very good, the ski quality was good and we were confidently skiing almost anything that held snow. If I could be excused for slipping into the "modern' vernacular- "Yesterday, below treeline in that area, myself and my huge group of cat skiers were "killin' it". That was very satisfying, at least in part because I know that come the next storm, "it" will may well be trying to kill us!

The one disturbing anomaly we observed was a few more big, active glide cracks than usual. These are still moving in the cold temps and we have been avoiding some good skiing just to keep from being underneath these dynamics beasts. As an example, on Dec. 7th, after several days of cold temps, a glide crack over 100m wide and in at least 150cms of snow moved 5m downslope in one afternoon, gently buckled a huge part of the slope and then stopped. YIPES!!!

This cold high is, at least trying, to turn the current snow surface into the first big weak layer of the winter. Time will tell whether we can forget it eventually, but it will be an important part of the picture when the next storm hits. That would be a REALLY good time to keep an eye on the CAC bulletins and all the other good info out there. It will be interesting.

Larry Stanier
ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide
laristan@telus.net