Selkirk Mountains - Rogers
Pass - Dome Glacier - Feb.7-08
I was up the Asulkan
Valley to the Dome
Glacier yesterday. A fairly quiet day skier wise (I only saw the Asst. Guides
in Training doing their thing in the same area) with mixed bag of weather –
generally cloudy with light snow and light winds throughout the day but with
the occasional well timed sunny break that seemed to coincide with our ski
descents (lucky us).
Did some Compression Tests just before climbing into the
trees before the Mousetrap (the route that avoids going through the Mousetrap)
and found the Jan.26 interface down @ 60 cm. – here it was a mix of small
faceted grains and spike like surface hoar that was maybe 5mm. long.
Compression tests showed a sudden planar failure on this interface that
initiated once we were in the hard range of the test – still not confidence
inspiring and it definitely helped to decide where we would not go on our way
down to the valley bottom.
In the Alpine we found no surface hoar but rather old soft
and hard windslabs under the recent 30-45 cm. of storm snow – the top 10
cm. that had fallen the night before was denser than that below it (4Finger
over Fist) and at the upper ridgecrest it formed a stiffer slab that varied
between 10-30cm. thick – we turned back short of the Dome Col to avoid
dealing with the last steep wind affected slope. Once we skied off the ridge
crest there was no more wind effect noticeable.
No avalanches observed but visibility was limited –
ski cutting did not produce any results except on snow mushrooms at valley
bottom where we could ski cut slabs down to the Jan.26 interface.
On my last post from Monday regarding the Swiss
Galcier/Tupper area I forgot to highlight the prescence of suncrust on steep
solar (southerly) aspects – these buried suncrusts are still a major
concern for me.
Since yesterday the temps have climbed and the Pass saw a
further 20-30cm. of snow overnight with winds in excess of 120kph at the MacDonald
Shoulder wind site (it is a pretty windy place at best of time but this is
significant wind) – soooo I am sure that things have changed – but not
to worry the highway is closed for the day so you can’t get there anyway –
but when you do this weekend – tread lightly.
Cheers,
Scott Davis
Mountain Guide