| The bombs were going off at Norquay yesterday morning and that generally means an "upslope" storm so it was off to K-Country and 3 laps at Black Prince (Thursday, Dec 28).
AVALANCHES: Unlimited visibility on the drive there, no fresh avalanches noted except for some sluffing out of steep terrain. Evidence of some slabs that ran during the storm in alpine gully features, starting in steep cliffy terrain, up to size 1.5 (as per Jorg's post yesterday). Doesn't sound like there was much activity at Mt Norquay with the control work.
SNOWPACK: About 120cm of snow on the regular Black Prince lines, about a quarter of that was storm snow from Dec 27 (30cm). Overall a very consistent snowpack in the trees, just a thin weak layer on the ground around the November crust, noted with probing. At treeline the storm snow lies on top of what felt like an old 20cm thick windcrust, with some weak snow below the windcrust. Just above treeline we could see notable wind effect in the storm snow.
TESTS: Lots of ski traffic here both during the storm (old tracks) and while we were there. "Ski testing" was occurring on many steep slopes in the trees with no avalanches triggered, but nobody ventured into the higher elevations where it was wind effected.
WEATHER: Cold, clear and calm all day although there was some wind transport on the highest ridges in the afternoon. Surface hoar growing rapidly.
HAZARDS: Lots of snow available for wind transport and all steep features are plastered in snow with cornices hanging above - watch out for overhead hazard.
SKI QUALITY: Great skiing in the trees!
SEASON'S GREETINGS: Happy New Year. Mark Klassen Mountain Guide |