Late January High Pressure

Mountain Conditions Report

<p>Over the past six days we skied in the Connaught, Loop Brook, Asulkan and Illecillewaet drainages and travelled on six different glaciers. There was evidence of a widespread natural avalanche cycle to size 3.5 on the December 1 and January 11 PWLs in the past two weeks. There was evidence of several cornice failures which triggered deep slabs on steep, rocky alpine features such as Mt. Swanzey S ridge.</p> <p>The forecasted warming was not as intense as predicted, however artillery and helicopter deployed explosives were able to trigger avalanches up to size 4.5 durning the warming event. </p> <p>Ski conditions ranged from excellent to less than savoury, however we managed to ski high quality, soft, untracked snow on every run. </p> <p>Steep solar aspects in the alpine and lower angled solar aspects below treeline exhibited breakable melt freeze crusts by Thursday afternoon. In sheltered alpine areas, 10-20cm of fist facets overlay a progressively resistant and strong snowpack; in isolated features, 5-10mm surface hoar was observed. In exposed areas, there was significant wind effect from variable winds ranging from mild sastrugi to smooth pencil+ hard slabs and breakable crust. There was lots of catabatic wind effect in large glaciated features such as the Illecillewaet glacier. </p> <p>Height of snow on the glaciers (in areas probed) ranged from 1m-3.5m+. Generally, crevasses were well bridged, however, there were a few that were still wide open (the Asulkan Glacier for example)—it’s still January. We travelled on the Bonney, Asulkan, Dome, Greens, Illecillewaet and Lilly Glaciers. </p> <p>In sheltered areas at treeline and below, widespread surface hoar to 13mm overlies a progressively resistant snowpack. The Jan 11 interface was down 50-100cm and was unreactive to skier traffic where we skied. The Dec 1 MFcr PWl was down 150-250cm in areas we travelled. While the Dec PWL was unreactive to skier traffic, large loads we able to affect it and generate large avalanches on it.</p> <p>Early season hazards still exist around creeks, but most of the valley approaches are in great condition.</p>