[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

[MCR] jumbo and forster creek

Ski touring up Forster Creek above the Dave White hut area at treeline there is a layer down about 55 cm in a 150 cm snowpack that is becoming more reactive to skier traffic on south aspects, which are now cross loaded from the recent wind event but this disappears quickly once in the trees.  Snowmobilers in the area high-marking on steep leeward loaded slopes above Whirlpool Lake and also on Catamount Glacier surprisingly did not result in any avalanche activity that we could see.

 

We did see a couple of natural avalanches size 1.5 on leeward slopes from cornice failures during the wind that accompanied the cold front while up in Jumbo Creek on Sunday; otherwise, very similar findings to Dave Cochrane and party south of the Bugaboo Lodge.  Skiing in the trees was fabulous, and the views – incredible!

 

Cheers,

 

Kirk Mauthner; Mountain Guide

Basecamp Innovations Ltd

PO Box 399

Invermere, BC Canada V0A 1K0

ph/fax (250) 342-6042

 

[MCR] Selkirks: Kokanee

Part way through a cold Kokanee...min temps have been in the -33 range, maximums around -18. 

Only one recent avalanche, a size 1.5 windslab in a crossloaded gully feature in the alpine, probably ran on Dec 6.

On Dec 6 there was a major wind event from the NE that stripped a lot of snow in open alpine areas and created areas of hard windslab. There has been a shear on facetted decomposing/fragmented particles down about 40 cm all aspects/elevations but it has mostly been resistant in character and not reactive to skis. The October crust is down about 130 cm in an average snowpack depth of 165 cm. Although the crust occasionally has some facets around it, it is unreactive to tests.

We have been avoiding wind loaded areas and there is good skiing at treeline/below treeline elevations.

Marc Deschenes/Mark Klassen

ACMG Guides

[MCR] White Queen near Whitewater Ski area

Selkirk Mountains, Whitewater Ski area, White Queen

A beautiful bluebird day for a quick ski up White Queen. Chilly start
to the day though, -22C at the car at 10PM (1430m). Must have been an
inversion going on as the temp rose to -17C at 1600m 20 minutes later
and remained around -16C while I was up high.

Despite the lack of new snow the ski quality was excellent with at least
boot-top ski penetration. Still early season skiing though, I had to
avoid numerous christmas trees, stumps and fallen logs on the trip
down. The snow depth varied from 70-80cm at the car to around 200cm
near the summit (2200m). The weekend's winds pounded the snow into
patches of 5cm thick hard slab along the ridge-top above 2000m. These
were easily avoided by skiing just below the ridge-line. I observed
some wind scouring on nearby Whale's Back and other exposed ridge
features. I could even see 'upsidedown' ski tracks! The wind was calm
today.

The upper layer of the snowpack has a strong temperature gradient: -22C
on the surface to -14C 30cm down. The resulting facets (weak, sugary
snow) contributed the the good skiing. There is a widespread 5mm thin
crust buried 15-20cm down at all elevations I visited. It was more
apparent at lower elevations, but it didn't affect the ski quality. I
didn't observe any surface hoar (large, feathery snow crystals) anywhere
although the snow surface was quite glittery in the sun.

I didn't see any recent avalanche activity. Loose snow sloughing was
minimal, even with aggressive turns on steeper terrain.

Have fun, play safe.

Craig Hollinger
ACMG Assistant Ski Guide.
_______________________________________________
These observations and opinions are those of the person who submitted them. The ACMG and its members take no responsibility for errors, omissions, or lapses in continuity. Conditions differ greatly over time and space due to the variable nature of mountain weather and terrain. Application of this information provides no guarantee of increased safety. Do not use the Mountain Conditions Report as the sole factor in planning trips or making decisions in the field.
Please check out http://acmg.ca/mcr for more information.

[MCR] Coast - Mt Rohr

Skied one of the South facing slide paths down to the Duffey Lake Rd off the West Shoulder of Mt Rohr today, with. The skiing was better than expected, with some great turns in facets on a NW aspect on the way up between 5800' and 6200'. Below this elevation a thin crust (Nov. 29th?) became grabby on the skis, and above this was a wind-crust on the surface. The South facing slidepath produced some good facet turns from 7300' down to around 6300' where the snow became breakable.

Avalanche activity:
3 size 1-2 natural slab avalanches observed on a South West aspect around 6000' in convex rocky areas, suspect a couple of days old. 1 old size 2.5 avalanche crown observed on East aspect on most southerly glacier on Cayoosh Mountain in steep start zone.

Weather:
-19 at the salt shed at 9:10am
-17 on the West Ridge with light winds from the NW at 1:15pm (not as cold as expected)

Snow Profile:
11:30am
5800'
North West aspect
12 deg incline
-21 deg. air temp.
Height of Snow 240cm
30 cm's of facets (fist hardness) over 1 cm thick crust (Nov. 25th), with a thin (less than 1cm) rotting crust down 10cm (Nov. 29th?)
Hard shear (resistant) down 31cm on 3mm facets below the Nov. 25th crust.

Alex Geary
ACMG Assistant Ski Guide

---

Use Hotmail to send and receive mail from your different email accounts. Find out how.

[MCR] Matier, Joffre Area

Up the N ridge of Matier today,

-13 deg on the glacier at 1230 hrs and the wind blowing fairly steady moderate North with scattered sky, no precip. the only significant wind transport was off the higher ridges. coverage on the skiers L glacier was a pretty consistent 250cm+ with 10 cms of variably wind affected HN sitting on the old surface. skiers R looks like it wants another 50cms or more before heading over there.

a couple of suspect sags getting onto the shoulder of Matier from the col that we threw the rope on for but otherwise easy travel up the ridge bootpacking stiff windslab, moderate sastrugi and some exposed crust (skiing was horrible coming back down)

back on Anniversary gl. the skiing was actually not too bad and the ridge above the cabin was ok, better than expected, the F res HN is sitting on a 6cm bulletproof crust at that elevation and as long as you dont hit any wind exposed spots it was pretty fun. wouldnt want to bang your head on that crust though.

the only activity that we saw was old with the exception of a sz2.5 on the N side of the Cayoosh valley, in one of the SW asp start zones above Duffey Lk, the slab looked like it pulled right to ground cover and was more recent than anything else we saw, it was a long way off though. didn't see any movement in the recent wind slab or have any results with skiing.

by the time we headed back down the track at 1545 it was snowing s-1 and was pretty much socked in.

Mike Wilson
ASG

---

Windows Live: Keep your friends up to date with what you do online.

[MCR] Hudson Bay Mountain 5 Dec 09

Finally dug the skis out from under the building debris today. At the
ski hill parking lot at 1300, it was -4.5 under clear skies and light NE
winds. Those winds were definitely moderate in the alpine and were busy
making hard slab and sastrugi. The usual shallow snowpack on the prairie
has an old melt-freeze crust and lots of facetting under that. I checked
out the natural avalanche in Little Simpson's Gulch that Aaron reported
on the 1st. This was a big event. The fracture line is about 300 m wide
and up to 1.5 m thick. The debris ran all the way to the bottom of
Little Simpson's Gulch. The skier's right side, which gets skied more
frequently, has not run. I would be very careful there until conditions
improve. It was -9 degrees and blowing out of the NE at ridgetop. Lots
of snow transport in the high ranges to the West. The skiing quality was
marginal at best.

--
Christoph Dietzfelbinger
IFMGA/ UIAGM Mountain Guide - Bear Mountaineering and the Burnie Glacier Chalet
Box 4222 Smithers, B.C. V0J 2N0 Canada
tel. 250-847-3351/ fax 250-847-2854
info@bearmountaineering.ca www.bearmountaineering.ca

_______________________________________________
These observations and opinions are those of the person who submitted them. The ACMG and its members take no responsibility for errors, omissions, or lapses in continuity. Conditions differ greatly over time and space due to the variable nature of mountain weather and terrain. Application of this information provides no guarantee of increased safety. Do not use the Mountain Conditions Report as the sole factor in planning trips or making decisions in the field.
Please check out http://acmg.ca/mcr for more information.