Selkirk Mountains - Rogers Pass
- Bruins Pass/Ursus Minor bowl - Nov.23-07
I was back in Rogers Pass today and skied up the ridge
towards Bruins Pass before skiing off the East side into Ursus Minor Bowl where
we did another run on a more S.E. aspect.
Of note I saw no recent avalanche activity (though I am
including a photo of a skier triggered slide from last Sunday Nov.18 of an SE
aspect skiers right of Video Peak that is referenced in the Rogers Pass
bulletin) but last Friday’s? natural cycle reminded me once again what a
serious drainage this is to ski up during a storm event, as avalanches crossed or
came close to the up track in at least 2 locations(frequent flyer path and STS
couloir – sorry local names but best I can do).
Ski tracks pretty much anywhere you can imagine after 4 days
of sunny weather (see photo of tracks in Bruins pass area) – so just so you
know if you are driving all the way from Calgary
or such that things have been hit pretty hard.
The snowpack that I observed was basically strong (hard to
push my pole through more than the top 40cms.), with more than 2 meters of
snowpack, The surface snow, being mostly loose and unconsolidated, lacks any
real slab properties for the most part (watch out for windslabs at ridgeline)
Currently the surface is a hodge podge of surface hoar
(those feathery crystals that form on the surface through a similar process to
summer dew), quite large in valley bottom (10mm +) and becoming smaller above
2000 meters, and I suspect suncrusts on steeper south and south west slopes
(though I saw less sun effect than I thought after 4 days of sunshine. One way
or another when this interface is buried in the next storm cycles things will
be much less predictable than they are currently – so remember to adapt
as conditions change over the next week with additional snowfall.
Cheers,
Scott Davis
Mountain Guide
