Storm's no Jokely

AvCan Vancouver Island , Friday 13th December, 2024 4:15PM

Winter is back, and it's about time. Today, we visited Mt. Cokely to investigate how the storm is playing out. We were pleased to see snow falling at around 1000 m and staged just past the 6-kilometre mark. Road travel by sled is possible from this point, and a few tire ruts carried on past the gate. The snowpack is about a meter deep at the top of the old t-bar. About 10 cm of new snow had fallen by 1 PM, on top of a supportive 5 cm crust. Due to the strong winds, the depth of the new snow was variable, but pockets of 30 cm could be found. In exposed areas, the crust was visible on the surface. We noted shooting cracks and small chunks of slab releasing under our feet as we carefully skinned around avoiding avalanche terrain—signs of a rapidly building storm slab, on top of that slippery crust. The weather forecast seems on track at the moment, yeehaw. We will be back to summit another day!