[MCR] South Eastern Coast Mountains

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

I got back from working In the E Coast Mountains a  couple of days ago. 

 

This is the shallowest and most faceted snowpack this region has seen in
years, and I'd bet most eastern Coast Mountain slopes, north of this region
(to just south of Kitimat) share similar qualities.  Two weeks ago the area
got a meter of new snow on top of the facets. Most everything ripped out.
BIG fracture lines everywhere. By last Friday most avalanche activity had
stopped although some slopes continued to slide- cornice triggered,
fracturing to the Dec 6 layer, in steep terrain.

Now in many places there still is a slab of cohesive snow sitting on top of
facets. Mid last week I dug a profile in a valley to the E of Baldwin's
Cabin in the Slim drainage. Basically it consisted of 60cm of Facets and
Depth Hoar  below a  60 cm 1F slab of new snow. The facets where so loose
that while standing in the pit  I could push my fist in shoulder deep and
then wave a straight arm 180 deg side to side. Below this, at ground, is the
Dec 6 layer which is all ice. In another area, near the Taseko Lakes, I was
still breaking through to ground skiing downhill!  Although the skiing was
quite good the best thing that can happen to strengthen this snowpack is for
it to melt! And you can bet that is going on right now... 

 

 

As you go west towards the height of land of the Coast Mountains the pack
changes dramatically. It is a lot thicker and stronger. Much like your
average year but with less snow depth.  There is no doubt a Basal Dec 6 ice
layer still lingering in most places, and I'd bet the snow above this will
wake up and slide as the spring pack goes isothermal. In May 93 I did a
traverse in this region (through the Toba/Compton) and there was a similar
crust facet combo that winter. I watched kilometres of mountain side rip
out, meters deep, after a few days of heat. Interestingly many of these big
slides happened very late in the afternoon/evening even on N aspects.

 

Dave Sarkany     

Ski Guide

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/mcr/attachments/20090407/2bf3cad9/attachment.htm>