Hey all, just spent a few days of high quality skiing/working in the WhiteH2O
Region as Brian Gould had mentioned.
The skiing has been great down here, but they certainly do have some snowpack
issues. Today, skiing into a clearing on a well packed up track our group
experienced a large settlement that a group member 50m away felt, of note that
we never stepped off the track. Wondering what had settled and suspecting the
Feb
4layer, went looking. A frightening CTE 3, down 60cm, on V overtop of a
suncrust layer was found. Surface hoar crystals were perfectly preserved at
10mm
in size. Entire block slowly slid out part way for a sudden planer result,
this
was on an East aspect at 1700m, 20 degrees.
The previous day down 40cm on a North aspect at 2200m the most amazing Graupel
layer was discovered, CTE 8, collapse. The layer simple flowed out of the
column when it failed, the perfect ball bearing sliding layer.
This particular day, I heard one group yelling avalanche and saw the debris
moving with skiers along side it, no one caught. Then descending back into the
ski area, witnessed several skier triggered avalanches size 1-2, very close to
the ski area boundary. All running in the previous nights loading. Busy
weekend
for the Cold smoke fest, with lots of people running around in the backcountry.
As Brian mentioned the locals must be aware of the snowpack issues, through
their own knowledge and the local bulletins, due to the amount of big
attractive,uniform lines that have not been skied yet.
As Karl mentioned, there really is a serious issue in the snowpack that will
probably last the rest of this winter. Remember, a layer of surface hoar that
is well established will often require aprox 80-100cm on top of it for it to
become more reactive.
Be brave, safe and curious.
Rich Marshall
Mountain Guide.
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