[MCR] Southern Monashees – Mt McCrae

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

Today we went skiing on Mt McCrae with some friends.

 

Access

We only made it up the FSR to 1100m elevation due to snow
(30-40cm), although our friends made it another 150m. We were both driving
trucks with winter tires. This made for a long slog up the road to the
trailhead, which felt even longer when another friend flew by on his sled.

 

Snow conditions

Excellent early season skiing, didn’t hit a single rock or
stump all day. At Treeline, there is a snowpack of about 100cm: 80cm of storm
snow is overlying another 25cm of facets and small depth hoar on top of a 2cm
crust with moist snow to ground. In the Alpine there were new cornices building
and wind loading observed.

 

Avalanches

One recent avalanche was observed at 2250m on a North facing
slope. It was roughly size 2, and appeared to be the entire storm snow sliding
on a layer of facets. It likely occurred on Thursday during the heavy snowfall.

 

Terrain

In the lower alpine and treeline we skied with caution,
avoiding terrain over 40 degrees big enough to avalanche, as the snowpack had a
lot of tension and didn’t feel like it could be trusted.

 

Enjoy the skiing out there, but be careful as it is still
early.

 

Alex Geary (ACMG Ski Guide & Apprentice Alpine Guide)

Pierre Hungr (ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide)





 		 	   		  
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