Saint Nicholas' Day brought another 30 cm of wet snow in the valley
bottom, southerly winds, and rain at higher elevations. We flew the
east flank of Hudson Bay Mountain at ten this morning and were
surprised to find less snow than expected, no slabs and wet surface
sluffs only in steep terrain. In the main start zone at 1800 m, some
of the bed surface from the 19 November cycle was still visible and
the cornices were small. There was a lot of wind effect from that
elevation on, with the upper mountain appearing stripped. We then
skied up to our observation site at 1500 m and found about 15 cm of
new snow, the top 6 cm of which were wet and very high density. It was
1.5 degrees above freezing, raining lightly, and there was a strong
southerly wind. The skiing was vile.
Even in steep terrain, ski cutting only led to surface sluffing. The
visibility was not very good, and we saw and heard no other slides.
--
Christoph Dietzfelbinger
Mountain Guide IFMGA
Bear Mountaineering and the Burnie Glacier Chalet
Box 4222 Smithers, B.C. Canada V0J 2N0
tel. 250-847-3351 fax 250-847-2854
info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx www.bearmountaineering.ca
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