[MCR] Hudson Bay Mountain 3 Dec 06

Subject: [MCR] Hudson Bay Mountain 3 Dec 06
Date: Sun, 03 Dec 2006 16:39:54 -0800
After some excitement when it rained in the valley at 0600 this morning, we went to check the conditions at timberline. There were 6 cm of new snow at 1100 m at a temperature of 0 degrees. At 1500 m, it was -1.5 with a light southerly wind and very light snowfall. About 10 cm had accumulated since the 25th of November. There was marked wind effect at timberline. Visibility was poor higher up, but I am confident that the light snow of last week has been heavily wind affected. We could see no new avalanche activity and ski cutting only led to sluffing which ran slowly.

The snowpack showed several sudden planar shears, one on surface hoar 30 cm down. There may be pockets of that surface hoar buried in sheltered locations, but I don't think it survived last week's winds in the alpine.

The forecast precipitation did not really materialize and the heavy early winter snowpack seems to be settling well. Skiing quality in the trees was fair due to tree bombs.

--
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
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