Hi All,
We took advantage of the blue bird conditions yesterday to get some fine skiing off the ridgeline north of Reco Mtn.
Hi temp of -9 and no wind. HS 145-180 at treeline. 20cm ski pen, 40cm foot pen.
On a WSW aspect at 2250m in a 158cm pit we were getting moderate shears down 27cm and hard shears down 41cm. Both were resistant and failing on old storm snow interfaces. The bottom 112cm was pencil hard snow and the Halloween crust (40-47cm up) was breaking down and rounding out. The top half meter showed a strong temperature gradient with the cold front already driving quite deep into the snowpack. No other shears were noted on this aspect but at roughly the same elevation on a NNE aspect we were getting hard sudden planar results on an old buried surface hoar layer (2-3mm) 97cm down in a pit with an HS of 170cm.
We saw numerous old crown lines and several large gaping glide cracks on E to NE asps.
Ridgetops were characterized by stiff, brittle cornices under the new soft storm snow. Surface hoar growth was fairly widespread with some of the largest crystals (up to 35mm) found at ridgetop.
The current surface will likely be our new problem layer once buried, with the surface hoar and facet growth.
Good turns to be had now though. Just watch for buried windslabs.
Cheers,
Shaun King
CAA Prof. & ACMG ASG
www.mountainsense.ca
www.mountainsense.ca