[MCR] Mt.Field-Rockies-March 17

Ventured to the lower treed slopes of Mt. Field today.
 
-6 nil precip in the AM and -3 S-1 in the PM overcast all day.
 
Went up the most climbers left hand side of the main slide path, in thick forest. 
There is a great deal of 30-50 year old timber that has been broken or pushed over down to 1500m.  And a number of crown lines up to 1m deep and debris piles strew about.
 
The main bowl under the summit has an impressive crown, suspecting a large cornice fall was the trigger for this slide. 
 
The snowpack was 250-300cm from 1900-2200m. 
 
Profile @ 2000m
The Feb surface hoar layer is about 130cm down at this elevation and still very preserved, test results in the Moderate range collapsing suddenly. 
The mid to upper snowpack is consistent with plenty of pencil stiff snow above and below the Surface Hoar layer.  
Storm instabilities where found about 50cm down resistant to shearing, the surface is fluffy.
 
We gave overhead exposure a great deal of respect today, as there are some large cornices plumped up on the Field/Wapta ridge. 
There was no obvious evidence the high lookers left slopes have slide in the cycle.
 
Sunshine and daytime warming is a good time to give overhead exposure to cornices and the slopes they land on some thought.
 
Merrie-Beth Board
ACMG Ski and Assistant Alpine Guide

[MCR] Selkirks - Northern Valhallas

Having spent the last few weeks guiding at Valhalla Mountain Touring in the northern end of the Valhallas, I felt like a local conditions update would be good.  We have done a lot of digging to try and find what I am calling 'land mines'.  The February Persistent Weak Layers (PWLs) are lurking in some places but not all, and finding them is hit and miss.  Digging multiple pits in a small area has revealed one pit having 12mm preserved surface hoar, and the next pit nothing.  At this point alpine terrain is a way simpler snowpack than the treeline and below tree line elevations, with the biggest concern being recent storm snow instabilities.  The surface hoar layers at treeline and below are still giving 'cash register' shears, in the hard range, but lots of stored up energy.  Basically this is analogous to walking through a mine field...you might make it through no problem...but you might not, and BOOM!  Steep south aspects are being avoided all together, as the buried suncrust/facet layer is NOT to be trusted.  Other concerns are recently formed huge cornices from strong winds and big storms, and still lingering basal facets in some rocky alpine start zones that will probably re-awake with the first high rains of the year. 

Tons of 5 star skiing to be had though, as it has been snowing 10-20cms a day for weeks now!

Stay safe,

Evan Stevens
Mountain Guide
www.vmt.ca

[MCR] Whistler backcountry

We were able to get into the Whistler backcountry this afternoon, skiing the backside of Flute. Well over a meter of storm snow that is settling but still is somewhat upside down with weaker snow below a bit of a firmer surface. Still outstanding skiing though and we did not see much for signs of instability or the big winds they have had recently. No whumpfs or cracking and no avalanches visible with ok but not great visibility. In the ski area it looked like they were getting mostly small avalanches with explosives control and ski cutting.

Mark Klassen
ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide
Banff-Lake Louise, Canada
web/ alpinism.com

Sent from my mobile device for which I refuse to advertise
_______________________________________________
These observations and opinions are those of the person who submitted them. The ACMG and its members take no responsibility for errors, omissions, or lapses in continuity. Conditions differ greatly over time and space due to the variable nature of mountain weather and terrain. Application of this information provides no guarantee of increased safety. Do not use the Mountain Conditions Report as the sole factor in planning trips or making decisions in the field.
Please check out http://acmg.ca/mcr for more information.

[MCR] Rockies, Bow Summit

I had planned on leading a ski tour to Crowfoot Pass today, March 16th, but decided to give it a miss while driving through 15 centimetres of new snow on the highway, which added up to 30 centimetres in the last 24 hours, or so, in my mind. We moved onto Bow Summit where the skiing was great. We dug a pit and I was pleased to find 220 centimetres of snow and no reaction on the Valentines surface hoar (down 90 centimetres) on a compression test. Snowed lightly and sporadically through the day and was snowing about 1 centimetre an hour when we drove away. The Bow Summit parking lot has not been plowed out as of late and attempting to drive in will result in getting stuck for all but monster trucks.

Happy trails,

Barry Blanchard
Mountain Guide
www.barryblanchard.ca
www.yamnuska.com

_______________________________________________
These observations and opinions are those of the person who submitted them. The ACMG and its members take no responsibility for errors, omissions, or lapses in continuity. Conditions differ greatly over time and space due to the variable nature of mountain weather and terrain. Application of this information provides no guarantee of increased safety. Do not use the Mountain Conditions Report as the sole factor in planning trips or making decisions in the field.
Please check out http://acmg.ca/mcr for more information.

[MCR] special public avalanche warning

The CAC has issued the third special public avalanche warning in four weeks. Very large, very destructive avalanches have occurred in the last few days. In some cases, these avalanches are overrunning low angle terrain, destroying mature timber, and extending traditional avalanche path boundaries. If you’ve never seen a truly big slide, taking a drive through Rogers Pass is illustrative right now. Weather will improve over the weekend and that will entice folks into the mountains after an extended stormy period of strong winds and poor visibility. When the sun hits later in the weekend, it will be the first major warm-up of a snowpack that contains two metres or more of still largely unsettled storm snow, fresh windslabs, and deeply buried persistent weak layers. We often experience significant natural and human triggered avalanche activity during and for several days after a time when these factors coincide. I know it’s hard to think avalanches when the sun is shining on a slope covered in perfect  powder, but a high degree of discipline and consistently cautious terrain and route selection will be required this weekend and probably into next week. Please keep your head up and stay off of and out from under avalanche terrain unless you have extensive local knowledge, a high level of training, and lots of experience handling conditions like these. This might be a good weekend to play in places where avalanche hazards are managed and controlled by professionals.

 

You can view the text of the warning here: http://www.avalanche.ca/uploads/SPAW/Special%20Warning%20March%2015%202012.pdf

 

Our avalanche forecasts (http://www.avalanche.ca/cac/bulletins/latest) contain more detailed information and are updated daily by about 5 p.m. PDT.

 

Karl Klassen – Manager, Public Avalanche Warning Service

Canadian Avalanche Centre, kklassen@avalanche.ca

 

[MCR] Rockies, Healy Pass area, Storm Mountain Fire Break

I guided a ski ascent of a small peak about 1 kilometre east of Healy Pass on March 12th. A size 2 slab avalanche had slid out of the looker's left hand shoulder of the second slide path. The crown looked to be as deep as one metre and about 40 metres wide. I suspect that it was a fresh wind slab. The debris ran to the lower part of the track, but not into the runout zone. The slide did not trigger any deeper layers. We restricted our travel to low angle terrain.

Yesterday, March 13th, I instructed my AST 2 class in the Storm Mountain Fire Break in Kootenay Park. Only a couple centimetres of new snow in the Stanley Valley parking lot when we got there. We set an ascending track from the parking lot to the top of the fire break. Once we had 7 people standing in one spot there we got a large whompfing settlement on what I guessed was the basal facetes. Some of the fracture line was visible to us 10 metres up slope, thankfully the slope is only about 15 degrees there (not avalanche terrain). We got several easy compression test results there on the Valentines surface hoar layer down 60 centimetres (snowpack depth was 160 cms -the top half bounded snow, the bottom faceted junk). These observations very much validated the day's hazard forecast of High in the alpine, High at treeline, and Considerable below treeline. We made a run down the fire break which has been seeing a lot of skier traffic and needs more snow to cover old tracks. While
training in the bottom of the fire break we had about an hour of snowfall of 3-4 cms/hour and when we got back to the parking lot there was about 8 cms of new snow lying on the ground there.

Happy trails,

Barry Blanchard
Mountain Guide
www.barryblanchard.ca
www.yamnuska.com

_______________________________________________
These observations and opinions are those of the person who submitted them. The ACMG and its members take no responsibility for errors, omissions, or lapses in continuity. Conditions differ greatly over time and space due to the variable nature of mountain weather and terrain. Application of this information provides no guarantee of increased safety. Do not use the Mountain Conditions Report as the sole factor in planning trips or making decisions in the field.
Please check out http://acmg.ca/mcr for more information.

[MCR] Black Prince / Kananaskis

Ski touring today at the main Black Prince apron along the Smith Dorrien Road: -2C at the parking lot at 9.30 AM and variable, at times heavy snowfall all day. Most notable were strong at times gusty winds, which seemed to be blowing up the valley (i.e. south-easterly) and more northerly in the pm. By mid day, there were about 30-40 cm of recent snow sitting on several decomposing sun crust layers in the upper snowpack. We ended up turning around before exiting the trees as the slab became denser and deeper with the increased wind transport higher up on the slope.

 

Getting out of the unplowed parking lot at 3.30 pm and the drive home was probably the most adventurous part of the day. Heavy snowfall (probably 4 cm / hour) and the strong winds made for tough driving conditions and we took the long way back to Canmore via HWY 40.

 

Jorg Wilz

Mountain Guide (ACMG / VDBS / IFMGA)  

 

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