[MCR] coast, red heather meadows

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

Coast mountains, Red Heather Meadows Garibaldi Park.

I took my new boots for a lap this morning.  The grader had just finished on the upper Diamond head road, although it barely needed it.  It was raining at the Parking lot with just a few cm on the ground, which allowed skin travel right away.  There were a few short sections of bare gravel in the first 400 meters, which I walked on the way down.  Otherwise the coverage was pretty good.  I dug and probed in the area around Red Heather Hut to find the height of snow to be 55 cm.  There is a 10 cm thick weak melt freeze crust on the ground with 45 cm of new snow from the last 2 days on top.  Column test results showed that it was all well stuck together as it was on the moist side of the scale.  The only non planar break was the ground interface.  
Higher up on the bench below ridge crest there is 85 cm of dryer snow on top of a 15 cm of weak melt freeze crust.  Ski quality in open areas was pretty good.  Foot penetration was all most to ground, 80 cm and ski penetration was approx. 20 cm.  Trail breaking on the flats was reasonable, but very hard work on a side hill.
Chris Lawrence
ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide
CAA Professional member
chris.lawrence at shaw.ca
604 892-4686 mob
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