Got to spend a day at the lodge yesterday. There are 155 cm of snow at
the lodge and more than 300 on the Solitaire Glacier. We saw evidence of
a widespread avalanche cycle very likely on the 16th of January. Many
windloaded features had slid to size 3. I suspect that nothing stepped
down to the deep instabilities. Currently, we only saw sluffs out of
steep terrain.
Skiing quality was excellent from top to bottom. The snow is very deep
below timberline. Above TL it is underlain by a firmer layer that makes
for easier trail breaking.
A snow profile at 1650 m in a scoured area showed 243 cm HS. The
raincrust is now 120 cm down. It produces fast and consistent shears in
the hard range. There are a few instabilities in the storm snow. We
could not find any surface hoar, but the site is very wind exposed.
The temperature was -11 at 2200 m, with light NE winds and some clouds
moving around.
--
Christoph Dietzfelbinger
Mountain Guide, Bear Mountaineering and Burnie Glacier Chalet
Box 4222
Smithers, B.C. V0J 2N0 Canada
tel. 250-847-3351 fax: 250-847-2854
info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx www.bearmountaineering.ca
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