jmckay Posted February 1, 2006 Share Posted February 1, 2006 Ice / SNOWLINE Snowline was very wet, with easy swinging. Moonlight has a wet-ish streak down the middle, but either side is dry. The ice currently fractures and dinner plates easily where dry. 2 Low For Zero appeared to be in good shape, and another party reported good protection on it as well. Snowing all day, with 5-10 cm, of new snow covering the tracks in. Aaron Beardmore Mountain Guide www.alpineview.ca info@alpineview.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 February 1, 2006 Author Share Posted February 1, 2006 Joshua Levigne and I snuck our way up to the top of Purple Bowl today via Lipalian Pk's N ridge & summit (not exactly recommended but good fun). We skied out via Wolverine Ridge. Ski quality ranged from excellent to downright weird. SNOWPACK: HS at TL is about 80 cm. In the alpine, 15-20 cm of low density storm snow on top of a 15 cm 1F storm snow wind slab (from last night's wind event) on top of about 40 cm of 1F to 4F facets, on top of 3 cm of F 8-10 mm depth hoar. AVALANCHE ACTIVITY: Strangely, until we crested Wolverine Ridge we observed little cracking and no whoomfing. This all changed 100 m along the ridge with a most extraordinary whoooommmmmpfmmpf lasting several seconds and resounding across the ridge, sympathetically releasing, 15 m away, a size 1.5 slab that ran to ground down to the bottom of the bowl to the south (2400 m). Moments later, 500 meters away and on the opposite side of Purple Bowl (NE, 2400 m), a sz 2.0 slab sympathetically released, also to ground. Further along Wolverine Ridge we propogated another sympathetic slab from 70 m away, this time on the N side of Wolverine Ridge and running to the bottom of Wolverine Bowl, sz 2.5. Also observed was a natural size 3.0 on from near the summit of Lipalian, less than 24 hrs old. Failure layer in all cases was depth hoar, about 8-10 mm, at the ground, 3 cm thick. I would rate Danger: Alpine: High TL - Considerable BTL - Low We ended up at Purple bowl because the roads W and N were closed due to avalanche control -- apparently Bosworth slid to the road, hitting some cars. No injuries. Regards, Tom Wolfe Ass't Alpine 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. In addition to my last post regarding Purple Bowl, in case it wasn't clear, Purple Bowl is a very dangerous place right now, as is any complex ski terrain in the area, and is best avoided until the danger decreases. 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 February 1, 2006 Author Share Posted February 1, 2006 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 February 1, 2006 Author Share Posted February 1, 2006 Was working at Callaghan Country Lodge (near Whistler) for the last 9 days (Jan 23-31st). Meters of snow fell during this time. During the last 3 days: 40 cm came in the last storm (ending Monday morning), and 30cm of new snow was on the ground by yesterday afternoon 3pm. The snow depth at Callaghan Lodge (4500') is 390 cm. Most smaller creeks are covered over, but the larger creeks (more than 4m wide) are still a problem to cross (3-4m snow walls with running water below). I guess by not having a real freeze to date this winter the creeks never completely iced over and subsequently got covered. The Jan 19th surface hoar layer (buried140cm below the snow surface at 5200') seems to have stabalized. I have not seen any avalanches run on it lately and tests indicate it has consolidated between layers. On the 30th we got into the alpine and saw lots of wind effected snow. Found a few size 1-2 natural avalanches that slid during that previous nights storm. Yesterday skiied tree line runs on a south aspects 4500'- 6000'. Found a weak 1cm crust just below the surface that was caused by the previous days sun, but it did not hamper skiing. I treated the stability at Tree Line as Considerable (as of yesterday 3pm). I have not seen the Alpine enough (due to storms for the last couple of days) to comment. All days the trail breaking was knee to thigh deep in Tree Line areas and less in the Alpine due to wind packed snow. Due to deep snow downhill skiing was only possible in steeper areas and it produced very good quality turns, the only difficulty was breathing (take a snorkle). Dave Sarkany, Ski Guide Callaghan Backcountry Lodge www.callaghancountry.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmckay Posted February 2, 2006 Author Share Posted February 2, 2006 Crowfoot Glades/Pass Wolfman Tom, Sinead and I enjoyed very good ski quality here today with 30-40 cms of new storm snow. Ski penetration is shin deep and trail breaking was moderate. We saw snow blowing off alpine ridges today and wind slabs were building and intensifying. There is a good possibility with winds or cornice acting as a trigger that in the alpine, a primary avalanche of the new storm snow could step down and trigger a much larger avalanche, so be very careful to give large slide paths a wide berth. Danger in Alpine is High. At tree-line and below tree-line we skied wind sheltered areas and felt comfortable with the danger. However this new snow is on the heavier side with more moisture in it, perfect for windslabs. Skiing up to Crowfoot pass we encountered a bowl that is affected by valley channeling winds and was very slabby and prone to avalanches in steeper wind-affected areas. Thus we are calling the danger at tree-line considerable with caution on any lee and cross loaded features. Below Tree-line we called it moderate. We saw one natural avalanche of size 2 come from un-skiable terrain off of N face of Mt. Crowfoot. We had no wumphing or shooting cracks today. Info for the experts; Wx obs, snpk structure: Elevation range 1930m-2240, at 12:48- Overcast, snowing 1cm hr, -1°, wind L SE, Ridge Blo M SW. HS at TL (7290ft), 144-175cm. Study pit 145cm deep NW asp, 34 deg. From surface; 0-10 F sd some rm, 10-36 4F DF, 36-51 RG 1F, 51-54 wc P, 54-76 mx 1f+, 76-100 mx P, 100-130 FC P-, 130-140 FC 1F+, 140-145 DH. 25 down CTE 6 RP on HST interface, 51 dn CTM 15x2 RP on wc, 54 dn CTM 15/CTH 24 both RP. Eric Dumerac. _______________________________________________ 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 February 3, 2006 Author Share Posted February 3, 2006 Skied to the 1500 m observation site on the E side of Hudson Bay Mountain today. Temperatures were -1.5 at 1100 m and -4 at 1500 m. It was snowing moderately off an on through the morning. The height of snow is now 140 to 170 cm. The fracture lines from the 24 January cycle and bombing were snowed in. It appeared that nothing much moved since then, but there was a widespread cycle on the 24th. We dug a pit in a shallow area. There are several instabilities in the storm snow. We found a surface hoar layer 60 cm down. The surface hoar was heavily rounded, but still recognizable. Strong wind was reported at the ski hill yesterday. We were able to ski cut about 15 cm down with good propagation where there was wind effect. This increases at higher elevations. -- 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 February 3, 2006 Author Share Posted February 3, 2006 Just back from 4 days at Rogers Pass with a Warden Service Deep Snow school. Nearly a meter of snow fell since Sunday. There were two Red Forms with control work one on Monday and one Wednesday with size three + avalanches on both shoots. Some avalanches are still stepping down to early season facet weaknesses. There is about 280cm of snow at treeline with approx 130cm of DFs over the January 13 Crust. Several shears in the storm snow came and went over the four days. Ski pen was about 60 on Monday/Tuesday but settled out to around 30 by Thursday. At around 1500metres on a south aspect we ski cut/triggered a few size 1 slabs about 60-80cm deep shearing on the Jan 13 CR on steep unsupported features in the trees. Skiing was good once the snowpack settled and trailbreaking became manageable. We were avoiding all of the open terrain. Stability: Poor Poor Fair .Trend: improving. Brad White UIAGM 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 February 5, 2006 Author Share Posted February 5, 2006 Good skiing near Black Prince today with a couple of my teaching colleagues. Moderate to Strong winds from the west throughout the morning and early afternoon down to valley bottom, howling up high, then calming down a bit with snow at about 1 cm/hr (rimed) starting at around 1 pm. Temps were hovering just below the freezing level throughout the day--perfect conditions for slab formation. The snowpack in this area is quite wind affected, but BELOW TREELINE the storm snow from the past couple of weeks seems to be well settled and bonding well to the facet/crust midpack. That said, the intense wind and new snow is increasing the avalanche danger in all open areas even well below treeline. We observed a couple of recent sz 1.5-2.0 slab avalanches out of steep unskiable terrain, NE aspect, at around 2300 metres. We were very cautious in our use of terrain in order to avoid steep exposed features. We gave runout zones from the high alpine a wide berth out of concern that large avalanches might run full path on the rotten facets/depth hoar near the ground. Ski penetration was about 20-30 cm and travel was easy to moderate. Ski quality was a little variable from the wind but mainly excellent in sheltered areas. I would rate the danger as: Alpine, High (limited observations); Treeline, Considerable; Below Treeline, Moderate. 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 February 7, 2006 Author Share Posted February 7, 2006 I skied in Rogers Pass last weekend Feb 4-5, finishing off an ARAC course. Synopsis Large avalanches continue to run and surprise professional avalanche forecasters, enforcing the lesson that events are unpredictable right now but when they happen they come out huge. Windslabs a meter or more thick and deeper instabilities are causing avalanches to start at treeline and in the alpine. They run to the valley bottom, with ski lines at lower elevations being hit. Travel in any terrain exposed to large treeline or alpine slopes is not recommended in the next while, even with the improving weather. Snowpack tests and the feel of the snow under your skis and with probing indicates a reasonably stable snowpack below treeline, but the threat is from any open slopes above that can run down into the trees. Of note is that the huge avalanche that occurred off Macdonald West Shoulder on Saturday only cleaned out part of the start zone. Hectares upon hectares of snow was left up there above the 2 m deep fracture lines. Terrain Heavy trail breaking but awesome skiing in the trees. Poor skiing at and above treeline. Recommended routes would be Grizzly Shoulder and Bostock Creek tree lines. Areas visited, on Saturday - Illecillewaet (part way up to the glacier on climbers right, well away from large slopes); on Sunday - Grizzly Shoulder. Max elevation gained was 1900 m on both days. Although other skiers have been travelling through and even skiing in the lower parts of avalanche paths, I decided against travelling beneath any runouts, including. Most major paths in Connaught have not run and although the Mousetrap in Asulkan got hit a week ago nobody knows how much snow is left above there. Avalanches A size 2.5 ran naturally late last week into the trees (into ski lines) in Dispatchers Bowl. On Saturday a size 4 triggered naturally and hit the road, off Macdonald West Shoulder. Another size 3.5 was triggered by artillery shortly after that, with all other artillery shots only triggering small avalanches. Snowpack There was an average of about 2 meters of snow on the ground. The top 40 cm was unconsolidated and it got gradually denser up to the Xmas crust, which is down 150 cm. Strengthening facets in the bottom 50 cm of the pack. Weaknesses (compression test moderate and hard, sudden planar shears) present down 40 cm and 75 cm but they were unreactive to skis below treeline. In Grizzly shoulder a very thin weakening crust is present down 100 cm (Jan 13 crust). Both this crust and Xmas crust were unreactive to compression tests, but had hard sudden planar shears with deep tap tests. Reports of skiers who ventured to treeline on Sunday indicated "upside down" slabby surface snow layers (and poor skiing). Weather Snowing hard on Saturday, max temp near 0 degrees, calm. Snowing lightly on Sunday, max temp about -1, moderate winds from the west transporting lots of snow at ridgetops. Close to 25 cm snow accumulation over the weekend. _______________________________________________ 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 February 7, 2006 Author Share Posted February 7, 2006 Signifigant avalanche cycle in the Lake OHara area Sunday morning during a brief but intense snowstorm with strong NW winds. Observed at 10am a class 2 avalanche triggered by cornice fall on moderately steep terrain in North facing bowl at 2400m above Schaeffer Lake. Ten minutes later we watched a class 4 avalanche release from 2700m on the steep East face of Little Odaray Mtn(aka Walter Feuz pk). It ran well into the timber and nuked the Goodsir prospect. Fracture line 700m wide by 1-3m deep. Debris from 3 to 10m deep around 500m wide. It sympathetically triggered a size 2 in skiable terrain. In the early afternoon of the same day a size 2 slab released on 35 degree terrain on the Odaray glacier(normal summer climbing route). Today was clear, cold and calm and nothing was moving. However, the situation in Yoho feels very similiar to reports from Rogers Pass. BIG natural avalanches are running FAR and FAST with relatively minor weather triggers. Skiers and ice climbers would be well advised to stay FAR away from big avalanche paths with alpine starting zones for the forseeable future, especially during periods of snow, high winds aloft and warming trends. Patience! It will get better some day. Larry Stanier Mountain Guide Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmckay Posted February 7, 2006 Author Share Posted February 7, 2006 Warm temperatures and high South winds today, but no appreciable amount of new snow or rain, contrary to the forecast. 2 cm new snow at 1100 m. Temperatures 0.5 at 1100 m at 10 am, -2.0 at 1500 m at 1130. No new avalanche activity in the alpine as far as we could see, which was limited. A profile shows dry snow throughout. It does not appear that the alpine will be affected by today's high temperatures. A crust/ facet layer 1 m down produces consistent hard shears with a sudden collapse. There are several failure planes in the storm snow. The high winds in the alpine are building windslabs which will be big in some areas and set up quickly on the colder snow below. Below treeline, the stability will deteriorate today and then recover as temperatures drop. -- 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 February 8, 2006 Author Share Posted February 8, 2006 Rockies-Cirque-Crowfoot-Jimmy Junior Spent last 3 days in the Rockies based out of Num-Ti-Jah lodge (level II avalanche course). The word in the Rockies right now is variable. From deep snow pack here to coreshot there. Shallow powder to boilerplate windslab. Yet safe and good travel is totally possible, weather awesome, and good skiing can be found. There are still some deep instabilities lurking. These are in the form of shallow areas that will propagate and deep areas that are subject to a heavy load trigger, like a cornice or bunched group of skiers. Also stay away from steep rolls, unsupported slopes. Everyday we saw fresh cornice failures causing avalanches up to sz. 3.5. We were getting wumphs at Tree-line in shallow areas. North of the highway on the mostly South aspects ski quality is not so great with the wind slab but travel is good as are the views. It was better South of the highway on the mostly North aspects. Skiing up to Crowfoot Mt. and its adjacent icefield was very good and did not see any sags (where snow sags into a crevace). We also went up the West aspect of Jimmy Junior from Bow lk. up to Tree-line where the big open upper slopes scared us back down. Get out there but be conservative. We were calling avalanche hazard; Alpine: Considerable, Tree-line: Moderate with areas of Considerable (steep,convex,shallow,corniced etc), BTL: Moderate. Happy Trails, Eric Dumerac For the Experts Info: WX: Mostly clear, Nil, -3, -23, C-M SW, M-Prev blo-snow. Snpk: Valley bottom HS; 68, TL: 135-180, ALP: 180 to 260+ on glacier. Srfc; F-4F, mid; settled 1F-P mx and basal 1F FC & DH. Consistent CTE\STE PC 15-20dn on HST interface. CTM and CTH 40-50dn FCs mainly 1F on P. In shallow areas getting CTH SP FC on cr near bottom. The Oct, Nov and Dec crs seem to be mostly deter. F F G. _______________________________________________ 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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