Skagit

Snow starts at 800 m on the access road to Cheam/Lady and it is a long way to hit the trailhead. Above the meadows it was breakable crust on all aspects we traveled on. Turned around at 2000 m due to whiteout. Skiing was terrible, and best turns were had below 1800 m on the logging road. Watch out for the bond to crust with the incoming snow.

Ascended Flora Peak via the S/SW ridge yesterday. We observed quite a bit of instability due to the rising temperatures and sun. The large open bowl on the south aspect was especially affected with numerous wet loose activities and continuous pinwheeling across major portions of the slope. We stuck to the ridge entirely to avoid it. Wherever we crossed onto the north side we found deeper unconsolidated snow.

Drove about 8km from chilliwack lake road. About 2.5 hrs skinning to the actual trailhead. Warmed up fast below the col, clouds came in by mid day and kept the sun from baking the main face of Cheam. Skinning up the broad face was not particularly enjoyable. A few cms at best on a very hard crust. We decided to stop a little shy of the summit as it was going to get worse before it started to get better when it mellows out. The southwest chute out of the basin between cheam and Lady was pretty decent skiing, minus the odd solid chunk of loose avalanche debris that was at least a few days old. On our way out of the logging road, a pretty good squall came in and likely dropped a good few cms higher up.

Funky wind loading on all aspects of Cheam and Lady peak. There is 0 to 40ish cm of wind slab/sun compacted pockets on a very firm crust on South to West aspects travelled on. Made for interesting route finding on low angle micro terrain. Only saw localized cracking under skis while skinning up shallow part of these slabs. Stayed away from steep slopes, tested a few mini features with no results. Definetly felt like it could easily be skier trigger at the right spot for a size 1 or 2. Went up the cheam/lady peak col subpeak and back down the same route. Also went up and skied about 1-200m off the subpeak of archibald back to the road. facing aspect in the shaded trees were 10-15cm uncosolidated snow(big grains) on a firm crust that made for fun turns. Really good riding as I was expecting a bulletproof crust, didn't push any peak due to unusual loading while being solo. tempetatures when going down at 13:00 and sun didn't affect the snow much until 1100m(ish,) Parked 7km away from the trailhead at 800m but the snow on chipmunk fsr was melting fast below 1000m.

Despite sun exposure, there was little sign of activity. Some pinwheeling, could have been days old. Snow was a bit wet. We stopped at 1830meters, below the peak.

No evidence of any avalanche activity, but 1300-1500m was quite slushy on sun exposed slopes; we stayed away from steeper slush and convex slopes. Firm but slightly thawing snow above was pleasant skiing, and felt solid.

Heavy wind affect in the alpine. Lots of new snow/cross loading. Natural avalanches present that released within the last 24hours. We performed a column test on a SW aspect. failed within 6 wrist taps. Layer failed 45cm down likely on the early December weak layer. Following this we managed to get a result that stepped down to a buried layer around 70cm. The snowpack where we tested was 130cms deep. We stuck to low angle terrain and exited though mostly open trees down. We had just broken tree line when we decided to call it and ride down.

CTM 13 (SC) down 110 on rounds.

Arduous travel above 1000m with >100cms of unconsolidated storm snow. Extensive wind transport at higher elevations, not as much at / below tree-line. Observed a violent size 3+ natural on a steep alpine slope across the valley. Start zone was SW aspect @ approximately 1950m, ran to ~1600m

Made it as High as about 1600-1700meters and didn't go further as in an out foggy conditions made it difficult to assess the terrain above us, and with a newer member in the group we played it safe. Surface snow is soft, 15-20 cms soft seem to be sitting on top of a 5cm weak layer, very easy fist thickness. Should a slab go, it seemed that would be the layer of concern. Below that, solid snow finger or pencil thickness But the upper snow does not really have any slab properties at this point. Shovel shear did not planar break, nor did the compression test. Broke on the weak layer expected (CTH) but doesn't appear to have any slab properties. Steeper slopes sluffed easily but didn't gain much mass and slid short distances. Lots of recent wet loose slides, glide avalanches.

HST averaged 40cm @ 1600m. Variable cloudiness and good winter temps. Strong winds from the W created quite variable condition in open terrain, and heavily loaded leeward slopes. Lots of natural activity observed on E aspects between 1500-1700m. Excellent ski quality in sheltered areas above 1200m.

Warm weather and sun this past week has created thick breakable crust (10cm) making ski travel very interesting. Widespread pinwheeling from steep west aspects on Lady Peak, and some avalanche debris to size 2 from south facing rocky terrain. Breaking through crust on wind affected terrain, the top couple cm just sluffed off. Very limited visibility. Ski crampons were needed!

Flora Pk trail in good shape, with some deadfall. Snow begins consistently at around 1100 m, but care was needed on the down due to thin coverage. Recent warm weather and sun had created tricky snow conditions for skiing, with breakable crust, heavy and wet snow from the summit. Literally all of the S and SE avalanche paths down Cupola Ck had gone probably earlier in the week with the warming/sun. Yesterday this wasn't a big concern by the time we crossed them as there was no sun nor significant warming.

Skinned up the Cheam fsr to Cheam parking lot. Observed many old avalanches from Cheam peak and Lady peak, from the day before and older.

We were deployed to the Cheam Peak zone to investigate a crust/facet layer that has been problematic in the North Cascades south of the border as well as the south coast region. We found the crust down 125 cm. but the snow was well bonded to it in the area we observed. 30 cm. of recent snow and moderate winds formed reactive storm slabs failing on a storm interface of stellar crystals. This layer will most likely not be a problem after today. We saw numerous storm slabs up to size 2 on large alpine slopes below Lady Peak that were triggered by wind during last night’s storm. The sun was starting to heat up the new snow enough to trigger small wet loose avalanches on steep south facing slopes in the afternoon.

Rode a couple evening laps in the old growth near Mt Cheam parking lot. SE aspect between 1400m - 1650m. Observed 30-40cm of storm snow + wind transport sitting on sun crust / wind pressed snow. Storm snow was cohesive, and VERY reactive. Easy sudden planar failures on hand shears, skinning in the trees and snow falling out of treetops consistently produced shooting cracks. Small test slopes failed energetically. Road is in "average" winter condition for sled access.

Tender cornices. We heard one heavy boom that lasted about 2 or 3 seconds on the other side of the ridge from our position but I don't think it released. It may have been 100 meters away or 1000 meters. A BC Parks crew at Lindeman Lake 1000 meters below us also heard it. Last photo is Rexford.

25cm of storm snow from last week was well bonded to a variety of layers. Alpine had a very supportive base (unable to kick through), this is thought to be a wind hammered surface. North facing treeline had a moderate crust. Surface Hoar up to 15mm was growing in most locations. Much less new snow here than in Mount Baker area.

TP: 1860m HS: 95cm SE asp. open glade. Slight wind effect. -4.6 and broken clouds. CTE (RP)(BRK) down 20 within HST x2 Bond between recent HST (40cm) and the MFcr appears to be strong. Faceted snow near the base of the MFcr layers.

Slab Avalanche over trail into riding area on steep south east slope Lots of open creek crossings

We dug down 1.5 meters out of necessity for digging out a rolled sled. Upon examination of snow layers found the upper 10 cm of fresh snow on top of a faceted layer with some crust at base over old well consolidated snow pack. There was s second layer beneath 40 cm of dry cold snow that contained heavier moist snow excellent for packing but definitely a difference from what was above. The size of the area concerned me as the potential for entrainment of the upper layer of triggered could result in a large deposit. Watch out for steep terrain with terrain traps until this layer becomes well bonded.