Shuswap

Some whumpfing no cracks

fun day out

Lunch transition, 1976m, NE aspect, 15 degree slope. Stepped off board and immediate HUGE WUMPH. Felt the drop and very loud. Dug instability pit. CTE3 RP, down 14cm storm slab, CTM13 RP down 45 on surface hoar. Persistent Slab.

Snow remained dry but air temp was above 0 deg. Wind effected pockets, and occasional breakable crust. Crust more prominent on S/SE aspects. Skied conservative lines, and enjoyed a sunny day outside ski area boundary. Observed some avalanche debris on steeper slopes from approximately 1-2 weeks ago.

We skinned up to the top of Mt Lolo following skin up tracks ending at the top of the bowl. We saw a few people riding down from there. Slightly higher than the bowl through mellower treed slope, we heard 3 small whumpfs while crossing wind loaded features. We dug a pit at the top of Mt Lolo on West aspect on a wind loaded slope to test the early December weak layer strength. We noticed 3 weak layer: one down 34cm (early december crust), at 42cm and 45cm. There is around 30cm of facets between the ground -77cm - and the 45cm crust. We got a CTVE - very easy test result (the storm slab down 34cm released while isolating the compression column with snow saw). But the other weak layer were not reactive in our compression test. There wasn't much snow in the bowl to ski without hitting stumps or rocks (maybe 30-40cm) so we decided to ski down the road back to the car. Definitively the weak layer of early December is really touchy and could worsen with increase loading of snow.

Problems listed today with Avalanche Canada were for cornice and wind slab, however we found an issue beyond this on a north facing slope, just under 30 degrees. We were cutting across the slope one at a time when the first skier experienced a 1 meter crack approximately 25cm deep shoot out in both directions below the skier. Under 20cm of new snow is a deep layer of faceted, unstable snow. We immediately backed away and escaped this slope. A slide was imminent had we continued to proceed. We moved to ski lower angled slopes - which proved to be fantastic. Do not be complacent with the snow pack and expect more risk than what is in the avalanche report.

Mellow day skiing north of Todd mountain. Conditions: Alpine slopes were wind affected. S & W aspects were terrible. N & E Aspects were ok. As it has been for a while, the best skiing is in the trees. We had several good tree runs on NE Aspects. Surface hoar developing on any sheltered slope. Wind transporting hoar frost into the trees from higher up. In spots it was a few cm deep and sloughed when skied. Weather: Sunny, windy in any open area. -7°c . Overall a good day. Lots of skin track highways.

Had a good day in the Sun Peaks backcountry, found the snow quite wind affected up top on most aspects. Nice dry pow in the trees with some surface hoar growing in sheltered areas, had a solid crust down 50cm. Found no cracking or whumpfing while breaking trail. Snow felt quite settled, could see old size 1.5 slides in steep northeast facing terrain.

Lots of running water on the right hand side of the falls however the left was nice and dry. -17 at 9:15 and -14 and 11:00, sky was overcast, winds were calm, HS 10cm, foot pen 5cm. No concerns of avalanches. Enjoy the ice climbing while Sun Peaks has it, the cold snap has its perks.

Weak layer at 60cm

CTM5 collapse on planar surface

Top slab was easily triggered, multiple week layers seemed to exist in the snow pack. During our column test the first failure was at about 30 cm. 10 cm down another failure occurred. The November crust seemed to be very resistant to failing despite our efforts to trigger it. The picture of crystals is from the November crust. My first Min report, so take it with a grain of salt!

Likely intentionally triggered by avalanche control.

We found a very hard 1-1.5 cm thick layer of ice on top of about 4-6inches of fresh snow. Many trees had a layer of clear ice on them. The ice layer was clear and very strong, It was difficult navigating all terrain as snowmobile skis could break through it barely. I predict this being a problem layer going forward. As it will likely be difficult for other layers to bond to it.

CT 21 about 30-35 cm down on storm interface. No other significant results. Snowpack on mellow NE facing slope we skied appeared stable, even when ski-cutting small convex rolls. Observed whumpfing at a number of locations while both skinning and skiing.

Please ignore my last report. First MIN report was rookie move. Beautiful bluebird day AM test: Did a test profile on 20 degree south aspect at 2000m, just below ridge top. HS 145cm 3cm of new snow on a sun crust from yesterday’s solar effect. 45cm SH/FC The next significant layer down was a crust at 70cm. Compression test showed no results. Layer showing good cohesion above and below. Snowpack upside right. PM test: North aspect at ~1800m/treeline HS 175cm SH 1mm Test results CTH 27 down 70cm on crust facets, resistant plainer Overall good bonding, no signs of instabilities Fantastic AST with Brad Atkins from Backcountry Avalanche Aware

Fantastic AST with Brad from Backcountry Avalanche Awareness

Crow foot AST 1 yesterday went very well. Great snow, weather and perfect temps promoting good stability. Check out Snow pack report and avalanche report for further observations.

CTH24 dn 45 on FC was intermittent with AST 1 class today. Depending on which student was doing the test for there first time. But test were fairly consistent between CTH 25/30 no results. CTE 4 dn 15cm was also recorded in the new storm snow on a layer of SH crystals of varying sz. from the most recent interface. We expected to see some Sz. 1-2 slides in steep terrain but could not get any rider triggered results in low angle terrain or small steep slopes just off the meadows.