[MCR] South Eastern Coast Mountains

 

 

 

I got back from working In the E Coast Mountains a  couple of days ago.

 

This is the shallowest and most faceted snowpack this region has seen in years, and I’d bet most eastern Coast Mountain slopes, north of this region (to just south of Kitimat) share similar qualities.  Two weeks ago the area got a meter of new snow on top of the facets. Most everything ripped out. BIG fracture lines everywhere. By last Friday most avalanche activity had stopped although some slopes continued to slide- cornice triggered, fracturing to the Dec 6 layer, in steep terrain.

Now in many places there still is a slab of cohesive snow sitting on top of facets. Mid last week I dug a profile in a valley to the E of Baldwin’s Cabin in the Slim drainage. Basically it consisted of 60cm of Facets and Depth Hoar  below a  60 cm 1F slab of new snow. The facets where so loose that while standing in the pit  I could push my fist in shoulder deep and then wave a straight arm 180 deg side to side. Below this, at ground, is the Dec 6 layer which is all ice. In another area, near the Taseko Lakes, I was still breaking through to ground skiing downhill!  Although the skiing was quite good the best thing that can happen to strengthen this snowpack is for it to melt! And you can bet that is going on right now...

 

 

As you go west towards the height of land of the Coast Mountains the pack changes dramatically. It is a lot thicker and stronger. Much like your average year but with less snow depth.  There is no doubt a Basal Dec 6 ice layer still lingering in most places, and I’d bet the snow above this will wake up and slide as the spring pack goes isothermal. In May 93 I did a traverse in this region (through the Toba/Compton) and there was a similar crust facet combo that winter. I watched kilometres of mountain side rip out, meters deep, after a few days of heat. Interestingly many of these big slides happened very late in the afternoon/evening even on N aspects.

 

Dave Sarkany    

Ski Guide

 

[MCR] Wapta Traverse

We skied into Bow Hut on the 2nd, Balfour Hut on the 3rd, Scott Duncan Hut on the 4th, out Sherbrooke Lake on the 5th. Great travel conditions overall, trailbreaking was ankle deep at the most. Boot packed up Mt Olive on route to Balfour hut. Breakable sun crust on southerly aspects on the Schiesser/Lomas exit. The east facing gullies off of Mt Ogden were running with wet avalanches by mid day on the 5th.

Happy Trails

Barry Blanchard

UIAGM/IFMGA Mountain Guide

Yamnuska Mountain Adventures

[MCR] Purity, Bishops and Dawson Ranges - Selkirks - Mar 31 to Apr 4

Last 5 days travelled from Rogers Pass into the Purity Range, then across the Bishops Glacier to Glacier Circle and out over Youngs Peak back to Rogers Pass.

Conditions were good with over 300 cm of snowdepth on all glaciers and well bridged crevasses.  Lots of low density storm snow has accumulated in alpine areas with ski penetrations of 40-60cm above 2400m.  Some areas above 2900m was 120 cm foot penetration!  No windslab formation made for relatively low avalanche hazard, but that changes immediately when the sun comes out and bakes all that loose snow.  Watch out if the wind comes up too, as it wouldn't take much to blow all this fluff into a windslab.

Fantastic dry powder skiing on shaded terrain, and suncrust on all other aspects.  This crust was not yet thick enough to support a skier, but we used ski crampons occasionally to deal with the firm travel.

Grant Statham
Mountain Guide


__________________________________________________
D O T E A S Y - "Join the web hosting revolution!"

http://www.doteasy.com

[MCR] Nemesis, Stanley Valley, Kootenay Park.

Climbed Nemesis today. Nasty skiing up there these days. Weak snow under a sometimes breakable crust off the trail. The trail up to the valley is a good slideslipping descent, but a tiresome skin up.

 

Snow pack on the approach slope is good right now. Could get scary with more snow or warm temps, but the terrain directly below and slightly left of the route is pretty benign. Absolutely no way I would go on the route on a warm day or right after any temperature change as there are some MASSIVE ice roofs hanging left of the route.

 

Good climbing conditions for most of the route. Lots of features and good feet mostly. We found brittle, glassy ice for the last 20m and that was tedious and a bit insecure.  

 

Larry Stanier

ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide

[MCR] Wapta Traverse

Wapta Traverse Mar 28 to Apr 1, 2009

Just returned from the Wapta Traverse with a crew from MEC Edmonton. We entered through Peyto Lake, climbed Mt. Gordon mid-trip, and exited through Sherbrooke Lake via the Scheisser/Lomas route. Overall conditions on the traverse are great.

The weather over the last few days has been a mixed bag bringing everything from total whiteout conditions to broken skies. It definitely still feels like winter on the Wapta with morning temperatures ranging from -14 to -10 celcius. Several days had significant windchills into the -25 range. The only exception was the afternoon of Mar 31 when we experenced mostly clear skies and warm temps. Despite the temperatures and radiation the snow still stayed cold at higher elevations. Every day did give a bit of new snow with a five day total in the neighbourhood of 15 to 20cm.

The Peyto Lake approach still has significant areas of weak snow from the lake up to the glacier research station. However, if you are able to find and stay on the old trails, travel is reasonable. The snowpack measured 280cm in depth on the Peyto Glacier. Travel between Peyto Hut, Bow Hut, Mt. Gordon and Balfour Hut are all easy with ski penetration of 10 to 15cm.

From Balfour Hut to Balfour High Col snowpack analysis gave consistent hard compression tests down 35cm and 85cm. There is approximately 80cm of facets and depth hoar making up the base layers of the snowpack which still gives some concern for triggering avalanches in shallow snowpack areas. In most areas the midpack appears dense and strong, but there is signifcant variability due to wind action in the alpine. Once on the glacier below the serac bands there is anywhere from 300cm to as little as 100cm of snow! There were several spots in the tighter crevasse fields where we kept the rope tight and did lots of probing. The seracs did a bit of cracking and popping, but no recent icefall activity was noted.

On the exit from Scott Duncan Hut the cornices on Mt. Niles are still looming. There was some small sluffing coming down the face and some old cornice debris, but nothing recent. At treeline there is a nasty suncrust making for challenging skiing until down into the valley. The final trail below Sherbrooke Lake is in the usual icy, fast, exciting "luge ride" condition.

Play safe!

Jeremy Mackenzie
ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide

---

Windows Live Messenger makes it easier to stay in touch - learn how!

[MCR] CAC Avalanche Incident Photo Analysis Link

The following should solve the link issue:

 

http://avalancheinfo.net/Media/2008-09/200903%20Avalanche%20Incident%20Photo%20Analysis.pdf 

 

 

Oops.

 

Karl Klassen
Mountain Guide
Revelstoke,  BC

[MCR] Ryan and Rutherford Valleys north of Whistler.

I hope this finds Everyone enjoying the beginning of Spring....
 
Yesterday amounted to a pleasant day in the hills. It was snowing in the valleys early morning, and then became sunny and warm by mid-morning with some flurries on the higher peaks by early-afternoon.
 
The best snow was found in sheltered (where no wind and sun has affected it) north as well as some east-facing alpine and treeline terrain; although, the snow became moist as you skied into lower-angle terrain on the north sides at approximately 5000'. The snow was still cold and light, and boot-top deep in those north-facing sheltered places. Even a slight tilt in the slope toward a southeast, south, south-west, or westerly direction had a noticeable crust forming on the snow surface.
 
I didn't observe any new slab-avalanche activity yesterday but be cautious at this time of year. Spring days produce a good deal of heat in the form of direct sun-effect on slopes that are southerly-facing (especially steeper ones) and also in the form of 'heat' that gets trapped beneath a cloud layer (even a thin one) and the snow surface ~ creating a 'greenhouse' effect which can destabilise the snow.
 
I did notice that cornices are large and overhanging in places and should be given a wide margin if you are travelling past terrain with an overhead hazard such as this. But, also consider not just the obvious hazard - which is the cornice itself.... but the type/size/scale/consequences of the slope beneath that cornice should it be subjected to a cornice fall..... a 'bomb' like that has the potential to awaken those old and deeply-buried layers in the snowcover that have been haunting us all all season........
 
Wishing you a great start to the Spring ski season.
 
Best regards,
Dale Marcoux
ACMG Member
ACMG Assistant Ski Guide
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

---

Messenger has tons of new features that make chatting more fun. Click here to learn more.