| Went up skiing on the Parkway today (Jan 3) on an east aspect in the trees, just getting to treeline.
AVALANCHES: we didn't see much in the way of activity today although some stuff has run in the storm, mostly out of steep gullies in cliffs. The Warden service has reported numerous avalanches to size 3 though, so we definitely kept out of runout areas and stayed in the trees.
SNOWPACK: About 130cm on the ground, with 30cm of that being storm snow from yesterday. There was a shear at the interface between the storm snow and the old surface (sudden planar - it popped off), but there was no slab in the storm snow where we were skiing below treeline. The rest of the snowpack felt well-settled with no major weak layers noted with probing. Lots of wind effect from the storm at treeline and in the alpine. Large cornices.
WEATHER: -5 at our high point (treeline) in the afternoon. Pretty much calm where we were although there was a bit of wind transport off the highest ridges. No new snow.
Mark Klassen Mountain Guide
|