Beginning of the season for the Avalanche Quebec team and beginning of the season in the mountains!
Although skiing is possible, the generalized crust and barely hidden obstacles make travel perilous.
This will make for a good base!
The light snow forecast for Thursday night (if it materializes ...) will be carried by strong to extreme winds and could form wind slabs, especially below alpine ridges, in gullies and in cross loading areas. These will rest on a crust that could potentially form an excellent sliding plane.
No new avalanche activity has been observed or reported. Please share your observations at [email protected], or with the Mountain Information Network.
On our first mountain outing of the season at Hog's Back Mountain, we noticed a widespread crust on all slopes and altitudes. It is about 3 to 4 cm thick, it breaks under the weight of a skier and makes the descent rather unpleasant. We have no observations above 830 meters for the moment, but we strongly suspect that the rain has also affected the highest peaks of the Chic-Chocs. The snowpack height is very variable, ranging from a few centimeters to 80 centimeters in areas of maximum accumulation. It is early season and conditions are still marginal. There is not enough snow to cover most of the buried obstacles. The crust makes travel difficult and falls potentially dangerous.
Forecast for the Chic-Chocs ridges and summitsThis evening and tonight: 2 to 5 cm of snow, northwest winds 50 to 80 km/h, low -9.Friday: Cloudy, clearing in the afternoon, winds diminishing to 30 to 50 km/h from the west, high -9.Saturday: Snow followed by rain, winds southwest 80 to 100 km/h, high +2, freezing level 1600m. Sunday: Cloudy, winds northwest 30 to 50 km/h, maximum -7.
More details can be found in the Mountain Weather Forecast.
