jmckay Posted January 15, 2006 Share Posted January 15, 2006 Skied to the observation site at 1500 m on the E side of Hudson Bay Mountain today. It is starting to look and feel like winter, but still bony and little snow in the trees. -6.0 at 1300 hrs at 1600 m. Winds moderate and gusty from the South. Moderate snow transport is starting to sculpt the alpine. HS ist still only 90-120 cm at this elevation. We observed no natural avalanches at all, not even in the steep cross-loaded gullies above the Right Twin Fall. The recent wind-transported snow reacts to ski cutting. Shallow snowpack areas are strongly facetted. Skiing quality in the protected lower gully was good. This is probably not so as soon as there is wind exposure. -- Christoph Dietzfelbinger, Mountain Guide Bear Mountaineering and the Burnie Glacier Chalet Box 4222 Smithers B.C. Canada V0J 2N0 info@bearmountaineering.ca www.bearmountaineering.ca tel. 250-847-3351 fax 250-847-2854 _______________________________________________ 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmckay Posted January 15, 2006 Author Share Posted January 15, 2006 I am sorry to say that an avalanche has claimed the life of a ski guide in the southern Rockies. Stability is poor throughout western Canada. There are almost no exceptions to this. Ski area skiing is suggested till the snow pack has time to adjust to the excessive load. This will take a couple weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmckay Posted January 16, 2006 Author Share Posted January 16, 2006 Spent the weekend working at Callaghan Country Lodge. Saturday was really deep trail breaking, and almost too deep to ski. Today the snow settled significantly and made for much easier travel. Saw no recent natural avalanches (lots of mid storm rubble though). Could not ski cut any of the usual test slopes. At 5500' there was a moderate compression test result down 30cm and another moderate/hard down 50cm - both planar. All in snow of F and 4F density. At tree line I rated the hazard as Considerable. The Alpine was looking wind hammered and slabby, we got to 6500' turned around (due to not fun looking skiing) and skiied down in a protected pocket. The skiing in tree line is very excellent. Dave Sarkany, Ski Guide Callaghan Country Lodge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmckay Posted January 16, 2006 Author Share Posted January 16, 2006 Just back from a work stint in the Monashee mountains west of Revelstoke. Over 140cm. of storm snow over the last week with storm snow shears tightening over the last 24-48hrs. Limited obs in the Alpine so not much to add there – lots of skiing at and below treeline. Even though storm snow shears continue to improve the overall characteristic of the snow over the Dec.26 crust (now down @170cm. in this area) is also changing as the storm snow settlement will increase the slab properties over this crust – the bond to the crust itself seems good for the most part but there are many places where it has a significant weak layer below the crust – in other words – hard to have any confidence in bigger or steeper/covnvex features for sure at this time. More snow on the way tomorrow!!! Cheers, Scott Davis Mountain Guide Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fern Posted January 16, 2006 Share Posted January 16, 2006 I am sorry to say that an avalanche has claimed the life of a ski guide in the southern Rockies. Stability is poor throughout western Canada. There are almost no exceptions to this. Ski area skiing is suggested till the snow pack has time to adjust to the excessive load. This will take a couple weeks. This is sad news. She was an awesome person and will be missed by many. It should be mentioned that this accident involved a very large natural release and that she was not skiing at the time but was making weather observations for a commercial lodge in an area believed to be safe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmckay Posted January 17, 2006 Author Share Posted January 17, 2006 I just returned from a few days up at Keith's Hut on the Duffey. Deb and I broke heavy trail up to the Hut (with the help of a couple of groups who caught up to us!) in 60+ cm of fresh snow, and set a couple of up tracks (the most work being up the N side of the ridge!) on Saturday. We spent all of our time on the Hut Ridge. Saturda and Sunday we noticed some wind effect in the alpine, but still excellent ski quality on both S and N aspects of the ridge. Little natural avalanche activity was noted apart from some loose surface sloughing throughout the weekend. Light to moderate winds from the south until Sunday afternoon. Later on Sunday and throughout Monday the breeze stiffened, with consistent S moderate to high winds causing scouring in the alpine and rapid blossoming of cornices. Of note, and some surprise, was a massive (sz 3.5) avalanche that occured Sunday night, sweeping down the moraines below the N face of Mt. Joffre and stepping down, in places, to the ground (as far as we could tell through the mist). It reached down to about 5000 ft (and may have even crossed the exit tracks leading to Cerise Ck), and was likely triggered by windloading on the upper Joffre ridge several thousand feet above. Ski quality yesterday (Monday) had worsened in the alpine from the wind but was still excellent below treeline. Stability is definitely worsening, especially with new snow (it was coming down hard again as we left and still blowing). Freezing levels yesterday evening were at about 1100 ft, and the icy little hill north of Whistler Village was strewn with tourist vehicles which caused us a 2 hr delay and forced us to use the 11:30 pm water taxi back to Bowen Island and our little son Rohan! Regards, Tom Wolfe _______________________________________________ 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmckay Posted January 18, 2006 Author Share Posted January 18, 2006 Skied to the observation site on the E side of Hudson Bay Mountain today. At 1100 hrs at the portal (1100 m), it was overcast, snowing lightly and 0 degrees. At 1500 m, it was -4 degrees and snowing. The visibility was marginal, but we could see several size 1.5 soft slabs out of steep NE facing and windloaded gullies. No large avalanches had run in this large and steep path. A snow profile confirmed that the snowpack is now at about 130 cm for this elevation. There are several instabilities in the 40-60 cm of recent storm snow. More worrisome is a deep instability, almost 100 cm down, where we found consistent easy to moderate shears, sudden planar, on facets on top of a decaying crust. We did not ski down the path. -- Christoph Dietzfelbinger, Mountain Guide Bear Mountaineering and the Burnie Glacier Chalet Box 4222 Smithers B.C. Canada V0J 2N0 info@bearmountaineering.ca www.bearmountaineering.ca tel. 250-847-3351 fax 250-847-2854 _______________________________________________ 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmckay Posted January 20, 2006 Author Share Posted January 20, 2006 Took a quick trip north of the ski hill boundary today. The flat prairie is strongly wind affected. There was one large whumpf in flat terrain. I dug a pit in a windloaded N aspect at 1650 m. The height of snow is from 160 to 210 cm in somewhat protected areas. The pit showed a fairly hard pack, with mostly pencil hard snow and a few one finger layers in there. A buried surface hoar layer is down 80 cm and reacts with sudden planar failures. A crust with facets below is 110 cm down and reacts with sudden planar failures to shear tests. I saw no natural avalanches, but the visibility was poor. -- Christoph Dietzfelbinger, Mountain Guide Bear Mountaineering and the Burnie Glacier Chalet Box 4222 Smithers B.C. Canada V0J 2N0 info@bearmountaineering.ca www.bearmountaineering.ca tel. 250-847-3351 fax 250-847-2854 _______________________________________________ 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmckay Posted January 20, 2006 Author Share Posted January 20, 2006 I was in the Black Prince vicinity today, Jan. 19th, from 1800-2300m. Trail breaking is good with 15 cm ski penetration. No whumpfs except at low elevation in a shallow snow pack area. A storm snow shear persists down 15cm but no activity was observed at this layer. Winds remained strong at ridgeline and snow was being deposited on lee slopes. Ski quality in sheltered areas was excellent. Many fracture lines from last week's storm are visible. Some fractures occurred well down into treed slopes. Below treeline stability seemed good from my limited observations, but my instinct is to give the snow pack more time to settle before venturing onto steeper slopes. Alison Andrews Mountain Guide Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmckay Posted January 20, 2006 Author Share Posted January 20, 2006 We've been in the Pass since Sunday on a guide training course. Groups have been in the field on Monday (McGill Shoulder, McGill Pass, Grizzly Shoulder), Wednesday (McGill Pass, Glacier Crest, Little Sifton) and Thursday (Illecillewaet Glacier, Asulkan and Bonney Trees). The week started with poor visibility, heavy snowfalls and an avalanche cycle from the storm that has been affecting the Selkirks nearly continuously since Christmas. Avalanches were up to size 3.5 and being triggered naturally, with explosive control work and by skiers. Snowpack depth at treeline is about 2 m. There is about 35 cm of low density recent storm snow atop another 70 cm of well settled storm snow that has fallen since Christmas. This all lies on a rain crust formed at Christmas and the November crust near the ground. At the lower elevations we have been in there are weaknesses within the upper part of the storm snow but that snow is so soft that there is no slab. We haven't found instabilities around the Christmas or November crusts. We've been skiing below and at treeline and snow stability feels pretty good there. It seems the large avalanche paths in the alpine are the concern due to greater storm snow amounts and wind loading and weaker bonds at the deeply buried crusts. Visibility was a bit better today and we could see into the alpine. Natural avalanche activity has tapered off the last day or so and with light winds at ridgetop and cool temps we felt OK about sneaking through the runouts of the large avalanche paths. We still have low confidence with alpine areas and any lower elevation areas threatened by large terrain above. There were large avalanches triggered by large explosives to the west of the Rogers Pass area today. We started rating the avalanche danger at High in the alpine, High at treeline and Considerable below treeline. Today we rated it Considerable, Moderate and Low. Mark Klassen Dwayne Congdon Colin Zacharias Mountain Guides _______________________________________________ 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmckay Posted January 21, 2006 Author Share Posted January 21, 2006 Just back from a few days of RAC in the Valemount area. Got to sled up the old logging road from the mill on Blackman road, and up to Cariboo Cat skiing's unload. We were basically on snowshoes, just walked off the road a few feet...did see a couple of different aspects. Along the road I stopped and did some probing and 3 quick pits. there is about 110of snow at 4500ft, Ne facing. The raincrust is down about 60-80cm.(see attach) Compression tests here were easy to moderate!!! a "sudden collapse on the weak layers near the rain crust. Not as evident at treeline. We did see some older (1 week old ) slabs on S aspects, cross loaded feature, ~ 70cm crown. Some newer activity on the S side was also observed. A few small slabs were seen on the NE aspects about 20cm down in the storm snow. could have been the snowcat. Though harder compression were observed on both N and S aspects at treeline, they were clean and repetitive. Certainly worth paying attention now on all aspects. Not only is there instability in the storm snow, but the deeper rain crust is something we will all have to watch for a while to come... Peter Amann Mountain Guiding Box 1495, Jasper AB, T0E 1E0 www.incentre.net/pamann pamann@incentre.net _______________________________________________ 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmckay Posted January 21, 2006 Author Share Posted January 21, 2006 I was working out of Callaghan Backcountry Lodge from the 16th to 19th. Lots of snow (77cm) accumulating throughout the week. At the lodge (4500') there was an HS of 325cm yesterday and at the 5200' study plot it is 4m. FP is about 1m everywhere. On the night of the 18/19 we received 35cm of light powder. The result was wide spread natural avalanching mid storm on only the new snow - all the usual indicator slopes fell. Yesterday's clear weather got us into the Alpine - ski cutting produced no results. Rated the Hazard as Considerable by yesterday afternoon. Excellent skiing quality. Dave Sarkany, Ski Guide Callaghan Country Lodge _______________________________________________ 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmckay Posted January 21, 2006 Author Share Posted January 21, 2006 Got to spend a day at the lodge yesterday. There are 155 cm of snow at the lodge and more than 300 on the Solitaire Glacier. We saw evidence of a widespread avalanche cycle very likely on the 16th of January. Many windloaded features had slid to size 3. I suspect that nothing stepped down to the deep instabilities. Currently, we only saw sluffs out of steep terrain. Skiing quality was excellent from top to bottom. The snow is very deep below timberline. Above TL it is underlain by a firmer layer that makes for easier trail breaking. A snow profile at 1650 m in a scoured area showed 243 cm HS. The raincrust is now 120 cm down. It produces fast and consistent shears in the hard range. There are a few instabilities in the storm snow. We could not find any surface hoar, but the site is very wind exposed. The temperature was -11 at 2200 m, with light NE winds and some clouds moving around. -- Christoph Dietzfelbinger Mountain Guide, Bear Mountaineering and 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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