Fraser Conditions

The recent temperature inversion has finally broken down and it was -24 at 1100m today. Snow depth at tree line is around 80cm. Needle-like surface hoar is forming in sheltered terrain and the upper 20cm of the snowpack is faceting with the cold temperatures. In wind exposed terrain the surface snow is rimed and supportive . Overall my observations from the day resulted in more questions than answers. Some impressively large avalanches, out of the steep and rocky terrain on the north face of Fraser Peak were strong evidence of significant weaknesses in the snowpack. I'm not sure what the failure plane was here but a crust was clearly visible on the bed surface. On the north side of the valley, a smaller size 1.5 avalanche on a steep convexity at tree line in the Fraser Chutes area appears to possibly have been remotely triggered by skiers. Again I'm not sure what the failure plane was but from the highway it looked like the crown was about the right depth to be associated with one of our crust/facet interfaces. In summary we're dealing with highly variable snowpack right now. I managed my uncertainty about conditions today by choosing smaller features, avoiding thin spots and navigating around convexities.