[MCR] Emerald Lake Friday

My friend Marc and I enjoyed blue bird weather today at Emerald Lake.  We skied terrain between 1300 and 2400m elev.  HS varied between 135 cm at the bottom of the path and 230cm near ridgetop.  Compression tests yielded easy collapse down 10cm and resistant planar down 35cm.  We stayed away from S aspects as the solar affects today were signficant with sloughing and snow balling (rocky peak looker's R of main path).  The majority of the cornice feature above the gully looker's L has collapsed with no result on the slope below.

Of importance, we observed significant surface hoar from the Lake up to about 2100m elevation.  It was still standing when we skied down at 1400h.  Plate size 4-8mm.  This could cause concern when buried by future snowfall.

Overall, excellent skiing through ankle deep storm snow, although this path has seen a lot of traffic since the last storm event, and fresh tracks below 2100m are getting more difficult to find.  Air temps ranged from -2 to -5C.

Brent Peters
AAG