Went for a hike up the Asulkan Valley
today (sans skis) to check out conditions.
Only hiked up the valley to where you break out of the trees
about an hour from the trailhead where you get a nice view of the Dome Glacier
and Sapphire Col (see photos).
@ 20-30cms in the valley bottom (all from the last couple of
systems) and I would guess that you would find upwards of 45cm. of recent storm
snow above 2000m. – looked like it warmed up part way through the
snowfall (thin crust 10cm. from the surface in the valley with moist snow
below) then cooled off before the skies cleared on Monday night.
Today’s sunshine probably produced a suncrust on solar
aspect but the surface snow was dry even in the valley bottom if the sun hadn’t
gotten at it.
I saw a couple of avalanches off the west aspect of Cheops
mountain on the drive up that looked like they ran a fair ways given their size
( size 2-2.5 - perhaps on a crust?). I couldn’t see the starting point so
I am not sure if they were slabs or not – other than that no natural
avalanches observed.
On the way out from the hike we were just dropping off the
railway grade down to the parking lot when we encountered a grizzly bear in the
woods above the parking lot – fortunately nothing untoward occurred and
the bear moved away and up the hillside leading to Marion lake – so if
you are heading out that way, make lots of noise and be alert.
Also if you are heading up to Balu pass behind the hotel be
aware that there is a restriction requiring minimum groups of 4 due to Bear
restrictions – not sure how long that stays in effect, but obviously the
bears are not quite asleep yet – best to check with Parks on that one.
Cheers,
Scott Davis
Mountain Guide
