jmckay Posted January 24, 2006 Share Posted January 24, 2006 Hudson Bay Mountain A day of much precipitation and wind. The wind is strong from the south in the alpine, but light just below 1600 m. About 15 cm of snow fell at the ski hill in the last 24 hours. Temperatures were -4 at 1600 m. We felt several medium sized whumpfs and cornices broke about 40 cm thick when kicked. Again, we saw no avalanche activity on the Kathlyn Face or in Simpson's Gulch, but the visibility was poor. On 21 January, there was a skier involvement in Little Simpson's Gulch. I spoke to one of the party today. They skied at about 1700 m on a SE aspect near a rock. The first skier was about three turns into a 35 degree slope when he heard his partner yell. He was able to ski out. They describe the avalanche as a hard slab up to 1 m thick and 150 m wide. It ran 200 m. They say that after the release, the rock showed much larger. It appears that they hit a shallow spot. It does not appear that it stepped down into the deep instabilities. The sizes sound a bit big to me, but it must have been scary. We dug a pit near Little Simpson's in a still wind affected spot. There were 173 cm of snow. The surface hoar is 80 cm down and does not react consistently. There are several shears that compress progressively in the storm snow. There is a hard consistent shear below a crust 120 cm down. We also found a very thin rain crust at the surface in places - it may have rained to TL for a bit yesterday. -- 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...
jmckay Posted January 30, 2006 Author Share Posted January 30, 2006 Last 3 days in the backcountry around Sunshine Village. Temps around -10, wind SW and moving 10 cm of recent snow around. In sheltered areas the skiing is fantastic with 10-25 cm low density snow on the surface. Above TL feels spooky - the recent snow has been blown into soft slabs and one could probably trigger a 20-40 cm windslab easily in steep, wind affected pockets near ridge crests. The deeper snowpack remains a concern with many settlements and cracks shooting all over the place. Lots of variation in snowpack depth makes it seem quite unpredictable, sheltered areas at treeline have more uniform depth and felt better. Good visibility today and we observed no natural avalanches but got settlements on every slope we touched, so something is lurking. Grant Statham Mountain 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmckay Posted January 30, 2006 Author Share Posted January 30, 2006 Saturday, January 28: Crowfoot Glades A great day skiing in the glades. On average around –10 at treeline with moderate gusting strong winds out of the S-SW. Anything in the open had that funky feeling wind slab, the sort that you can’t trust. I was definitely thinking about propagations but heard no settlements all day. We stuck to the treeline terrain and skied far skiers left on the old bed surfaces of a huge cycle that ripped through the area sometime ago. Excellent skiing in the steeps, just had to watch out of the odd nasty chunk of debris in the flat light. We also skied one of the steep chutes off the front back into the marsh, it all slid during the last cycle and offered great skiing again. Considerable at treeline and Moderate below treeline. Cirque and Observation looked absolutely wind blasted. Sunday, January 29: Healy-Simpsons-Sunshine Circuit I can’t add too much to Grant’s report, except for the thundering whumfing and shooting cracks in the meadows above Simpson’s Pass on the way to Wawa Ridge. Definitely very low confidence on any feature. Skiing through very low angled terrain we caused a whumpf that traveled a few meters to a 25 degree slope, you could hear the settlement travel quite a distance (>100m). The slope fully cracked and wanted to move, just lacked the incline. Below treeline was a very different feeling with quite a strong mid-pack compared to treeline, punching track up from Simpson’s Pass was quite straight forward and while we didn’t find the most elegant way through the cliff bands stability wasn’t on my mind too much, although I didn’t test my theory too much either. We were at the top of Wawa around 4pm and it was blowing like crazy and starting to snow. The clouds to the west looked like they were bringing some good precip, lets hope so! Considerable in the alpine and treeline, Moderate below treeline. Ian Tomm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyHarry Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 Trade you some snow for some cold weather and some sun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmckay Posted January 31, 2006 Author Share Posted January 31, 2006 No new snow on the approach, and slippery! Somewhat sun affected throughout the climb, and made for easy swinging. Temperature was cool all day, no warmer than -3. It was a little hollow sounding only at the very last bulge, and could see some water running behind. You can climb around easily to the left. You can see it in the photo as the grey spot at the very top. As for the bowl above, there isn't to much snow to speak of as of today. There was some old debris about 200m above the last pitch, from who knows when? Also,the first chain anchor on the left has been damaged by rockfall/avalanches. You can belay easily on the ice just to the right. Aaron Beardmore Mountain Guide www.alpineview.ca Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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