[MCR] Sandon & London Ridge, Goat Range, South Selkirks

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

Here is some field info after teaching AST 1 and 2 courses from Jan. 6-10 in
the New Denver area:
 
Jan. 7 (light rain and overcast at 7:30am in New Denver). Up white Creek in
Sandon as the storm was winding down we were getting isolated whumpfing with
large loads (several skiers) and able to trigger small unsupported features
down 25-30 cm on the Jan. 4 surface hoar, which was quite large in one
clearcut near valley bottom.   
 
Jan. 8 (-1C and overcast at 7:30am in New Denver). At 6100ft. on a NE aspect
(Sandon, Cable Bowl) we had easy compression test results with a progressive
compression fracture character on the Jan 4 storm snow interface and could
not locate the surface in an open glade.  A facet layer down 50-60cm gave
hard results with a resistant planar character.  Good ski quality up high,
but alders were still poking out below about 5500ft.  The new storm snow did
allow us to ski the tighter forest right down to valley bottom without too
much trouble.
 
Jan. 9 (-6C and overcast at 7am in New Denver).  25-30cm deep trail breaking
to the London Ridge area.  Visibility opened up in the alpine and we saw
numerous crown lines from a cycle that occurred during the last storm
(25-35cm deep with up to 10cm new load on bed surfaces).  Most slabs did not
run full path but one size 2-2.5 on a steep, east aspect at ridgetop
(7400ft) caught our eye.  Light to moderate wind transport had occurred at
ridgetop from a southwesterly flow.  Many layers were visible in the
snowpack on a south aspect at 5700ft but the storm snow down 30cm (giving
easy, resistant shears but no result on an Extended Column Test) and a
faceted crust down 65-80cm (giving hard, variable results) seemed the most
active. 
 
Jan. 10 (-11C and clear at 8am in New Denver).  Back at London Ridge (great
skiing) we found 2 more size 2s on south and east aspects that failed on the
Jan. 4 layer during the last storm.  At 6000 ft. on a SE aspect we had
moderate, variable fracture character results on the storm interface down
35cm and hard results on a thick crust layer down ~100cm (in a 170cm snow
pack) which gave some sudden planar and some broken fracture characters
(Extended Column Test No result).  HS 200cm at our high point of 6700cm on a
somewhat lee slope.
 
Excellent ski quality, but we were avoiding larger, steep, open slopes,
convexities and unsupported features and employing safe travel practices to
minimize our exposure.
 
 
Cheers,
Shaun King  ACMG / UIAGM Mountain Guide
Mountain Sense Guiding & Instruction
www.mountainsense.ca <http://www.mountainsense.ca/>  
 
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