<p>Went out to the Coquihala for some early season observations gathering and scouting today. Took two sets of field weather measurements, and measured HS throughout our day. Will attach full field wx obs below.
Snow coverage was okay for skinning at the trailhead. The first road up to the junction of Falls Lake, Zoa Peak, and Nak/Thar Peaks was in good shape, without any creeks or slide alder to navigate (HS here @ 10:30am: 20cms). The junction to Nak/Thar peak has much slide alder to navigate with a creek. This is generally the trend for the remainder of the road, except for one open section with small (<1m tall) trees on the road. We continued hiking along the road, aiming to hike further along to eventually gather some obs. at treeline, though coverage at the end of the road was minimal, with high flow deep creeks and slide alder throughout. Here we turned around and reversed back to the car (HS of snow on road @ 12:00pm (noon): 46cms). A few turns were had (which felt REALLY good), but overall coverage is still too low to avoid hitting rocks, gravel on the road, etc.
As a summary, while there was significant snowfall over the course of the day, there is extremely low coverage overall in the Coquihala right now; I'd wait until at least another 2-3 storms dish out the goods before going back.
If you'd like more information, feel free to email me at:
[email protected]
Field Wx Obs:
-At 10:13am: Elevation: 1194m; Sky: Obscured; Precip: S4, Air Temp: 1.0, HS: 24cm; Suf grain form/sz: Rounded polycrystals @ 1.0mm, no wind
-At 1:00pm: Elevation: 1194m; Sky: Obscured; Precip: S6; Air Temp: 0, HS: 54cm, no wind
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Avalanche Conditions
Rapid temperature rise to near zero degrees or wet surface snow.
30cm + of new snow, or significant drifting, or rain in the last 48 hours.
Weather Conditions
Wet, Stormy, Warm, Foggy, Cloudy.
