Winds are very strong out of the south in the alpine today, and great
amounts of snow are being moved. The winds were strong enough to shut
the Smithers ski hill down. It is still cold above 1600 m. About 25 cm
of recent snow are in the process of bonding, but still fail fairly
easily. There is also a crust 70 cm down that produces hard, but
clean and consistent shears - definitely something to watch for as the
load on it increases. The big unknown right now is if and how much and
to what elevation it will rain tonight and tomorrow. Rain on this
snowpack will make it unstable very quickly. I would not trust
anything once that happens. If the temps stay cool, watch out for
widely distributed windslabs. Skiing quality was a mixed bag - some
turns in nice powder, some in stiff windslab, some in moist snow.
--
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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