Ski Guide Exam -- Rogers Pass

Mountain Conditions Report

<p>The boot liners are still warm as we just wrapped up the first module of our ski guide exam in Rogers Pass. All the news, below: </p> <p>SNOWPACK<br /> 5-10cms of new snow fell in the last 24hrs with light westerly winds. This overlies a variety of surfaces: hard slab, wind press, sun crust, temperature crust, and old facetted snow. We found the Jan 29th SH down 50cms in sheltered E and NE locations but it was unreactive to skier traffic. The mid pack was well settled. </p> <p>SKI QUALITY<br /> Best skiing was found up the Asulkan valley off Sapphire Col, the Asulkan Glacier, the Dome, and Lookout Couloir where preserved turns could still be found in 15-20cm of soft snow. Bruins Ridge held similar, while the Bruins Glacier was hard wind scour and sastrugi. Below treeline, warm temps have made a crust and roller balled most tree skiing terrain. </p> <p>GLACIERS<br /> Consistent 4m+ probed on the Illecillewaet, Asulkan, and Bruins glaciers </p> <p>CORNICES<br /> See the picture attached for one of several cornice cleaves just south of Forever Young on the traverse route to the peak. </p> <p>AVALANCHE ACTIVITY<br /> A quiet few days on this front. Seasonably warm temps on Sunday and Monday created moist snow below 1700m, with a limited natural cycle of loose wet to size 1.5, largely failing out of steep, pillowed terrain. Near the moustrap in the Asulkan, large pillow chunks came down right above the standard skin track. Otherwise, no new avalanches observed this week. </p> <p>TRAVEL<br /> Travel is fast right now. Between wind scoured alpine terrain and well-worn skin tracks, ski crampons were necessary on almost all of the routes we did. At valley bottom, the exit "luge tracks" were fast, furious, littered with tree bombs/ice chunks, and warranted some extra caution, and a slower approach. </p> <p>ROUTES TRAVELED<br /> Youngs Traverse<br /> Bruins Glacier &amp; 8812 Peak to 2600m<br /> Sapphire Col&gt;Lily Col&gt;Dome descent<br /> Lily Traverse to Sapphire Col &amp; Asulkan Glacier descent<br /> Tupper Traverse<br /> Glacier Crest to Lookout Col to Lookout Couloir</p> <p>Thanks to a great crew!</p> <p>Geoff Osler MG<br /> Mike Adolph MG</p> <p>Holly Walker ASG<br /> Nick Waggoner ASG<br /> Aleta Corbett ASG<br /> Florina Beglinger ASG<br /> David Bryan ASG</p>