[MCR] Hudson Bay Mountain 9 Feb 06

Subject: [MCR] Hudson Bay Mountain 9 Feb 06
Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 00:32:16 -0000

To see another side of the mountain , I skied up from the ski hill along the 
southerly ridge and flank 
today. It was -5 at 1450 m at 1230 and -9 at 2350 m at 1415. This is a very 
windy area and the surface 
showed everything from raincrust to hard windslab to rimed rock. The sastrugi 
became 30 cm high and 
covered with hard rime above 2300 m, making for very poor travel conditions.

The cornices seem relatively small and Big Simpson's is dry and bony. A recent 
cornice fall above Crater 
Lake triggered a 2.5 slab with a fracture line 50 m wide and about 20 cm high. 
Two other smaller slabs 
released in the same steep unskiable east facing terrain at 2100 m. Those slabs 
may have been so thin 
because this steep flank slides frequently. However, the debris piles were 
still good sized.

I experienced no whumpfs and settelments, but was not breaking trail most of 
the way. The winds were 
moderate from the NE at the ridgetop.

Skiing quality was fair to good below the rimed sastrugi zone on facetting 
wind-packed snow.

-- 
Christoph Dietzfelbinger, Mountain Guide
Bear Mountaineering and the Burnie Glacier Chalet
Box 4222 Smithers B.C. Canada V0J 2N0
info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx   www.bearmountaineering.ca
tel. 250-847-3351 fax 250-847-2854