MCR Observation

Mountain Conditions Report

<p>I spent the last four days guiding day tours from a fly in camp situated near the most west White Lake (1770m) in the head waters of Spetch Creek by the North Glacier of Saxifrage Mt. We skied in the Place Glacier area, towards North Joffre Creek and off Saxifrage. </p> <p>Generally the ski quality was very good but the warm temps from 10 days ago had glazed even the highest ridges with ice. This made crossing cols very slick or crunchy . Below 1900m the crust was still prominent under skis. </p> <p>North aspects have obvious faceted snow buried by the more recent storm snow. We saw the results of a sz 3+ cornice release that triggered multiple slabs up to 1.5m deep on what looked like the faceted layer. </p> <p>Yesterdays strong NE winds loaded all lee aspects and caused natural avalanches to Sz 2 in the alpine and at tree line elevations. None of these slides stepped down to the lower faceted layers.</p> <p>We had a very wintery trip with air temps never warmer than -10. Short flight. Great touring area :)</p>