<p>Had an inauspicious start to the day. Sometime during the bleary eyed 6am transfer of gear to the carpool my ski boots remained behind the driver seat of my car. Not wanting to spend the day in the Chester Lake parking lot I decided to do a snow observation transect into Chester Lake, between elevations 1900m and 2300m. I did multiple hasty pits (4) on the hike in, and two study pits, one in Galatea Meadows on a 20 degree slope, and the other on the moraine at the end of Chester Lake, on a 30 degree slope. In both study pits I did both extended column compression tests across slope, and extended column propagation tests along the fall line.
In my 30 years of climbing and skiing in the Rockies I have never experienced an early season snow pack like the one I observed today. The best phrase I can find to describe what I observed is "a total reset". At treeline, I found none of the growing dry facets and stiff wind slabs that are normal for this time of year.
***IMPORTANT WARNING*** do not try to cross Chester Lake, the surface is currently saturated, and not supportive.</p>
Weather Report
<p>At tree line we experienced broken clouds with scattered flurries, amounting to less than 1cm/hr accumulation of light small grained rounds and graupel. In the alpine above 2800m strong eastward winds over 60 km/hr were observed on Mountain Chester, with significant plumes and transport. All summits surrounding the Chester Lake basin were obscured by summit clouds, and high winds.</p>
Terrain Ridden
Alpine slopes, Mellow slopes, Dense trees.
Terrain Avoided
Steep slopes, Convex slopes.
Avalanche Conditions
Slab avalanches today or yesterday.
Snow Conditions
Crusty, Wind affected, Powder.
Weather Conditions
Cloudy.
Location:
50.81828000 -115.27860000
