[MCR] Mt Field

We skied on the NE side of Mt Field today, to just below the last trees on the first avalanche path you come across when skiing up the Takakkaw road.

On the initial slopes there was about 135 cm of snow, but just over a meter of snow on top of the alders. At 1750 m we got a sudden planar shear about 75 cm from the surface, on mature facets of 4F resistance below a 1F slab. So that nixed the thought of traversing to and skiing one of the steeper avalanche tracks that run through the trees at that elevation a bit further up the valley.

We continued up the low angle terrain of the path to 2075 m. Didn't do much in the way of snowpack investigation here but there was significantly more snow, about 2 m. The mid pack was supportive, with about 20 cm of recent storm snow on top.

With the critical inputs of the above mentioned sudden planar shear, a rapid spike in temperature to -1 C and wind loading at ridgetops, we elected to give the large and steep upper slopes a wide berth and skied down from this elevation.

Excellent skiing!

Mark Klassen

Mountain Guide

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