[MCR] Kicking Horse Slackcountry.

Subject: [MCR] Kicking Horse Slackcountry.
Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 22:04:18 -0700

In the past week I have been traveling in and out of bounds around KHMR as well as Rogers Pass. As usual the storms don't usually drop as much in the Dogtooth region, however, they have been rather fruitful this past week. The Kickinghorse slackcountry has seen relatively minimal traffic to the norm. Backcountry skiers and Avy crews in bounds have been triggering avalanches at a regular rate. With even the odd burial and significant surprise. The past couple of days the winds and warmer temps have stiffened up the alpine and treeline zones considerable along with strong lee loading. Today below treeline on a windward SW slope at aprox 2200m today, large whumps were felt and heard at a regular occurrence. The layer the seemed to be causing this drop in the snowpack was aprox 70cm down. Upon testing the layers, down 38cm Compression test Moderate 13, resistant planner, which was the most recent storm snow. And down 70cm Compression test Moderate 15, sudden collapse well into the facets from December. Basically, the crew of very experienced ski mountaineers and guides that I was skiing with was seriously concerned that we were not going to make the Bad Sweater Party tonight if we skied anything steeper than about 25 degrees. There are very serious issues in the snowpack right now everywhere in the Interior which will take some time to heal, however these persistent week layers will more than likely be haunting us for the rest of the winter. It would seem that is the winter to take it easy and think very hard about the more committing lines.
Be smart and live to ski another winter.

Rich Marshall
Mountain Guide
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