Skied Mt. Field on Thursday 19th up to the upper moraines below the peak.
At 1550m the Jan 27 SH is 25mm creating a 2 cm thick layer down 20 cm. The
snow on top of this layer is fist to 4F facets, so there is no propagation
potential even though the layer is whumping and collapses suddenly in the
easy to moderate range with compression tests.( PST 80/100 end and ECT N)
This layer will definitely wake up with load. At treeline and above there
was no buried surface hoar and the skiing was very pleasant with 20 cm ski
pen over a pencil midpack. Even the lower elevation was still supportive
and it was easy skiing around the alders.
Up Sapphire Col and down the Lily to Loop brook on Friday 20th. Roger's
Pass is hammered with tracks everywhere and some very adventurous lines
have been skied (up and down). The skiing on the Asulkan still looked good
with about 5cm HN over 20 cm of facets over a harder layer. Unfortunately
we skiied down the Lily which was a mixture of hard wind slab, old tracks
and variable penetration in facets. Lots of visible slots on the glacier.
The trail down the creek is an iced obstacle course. Below 1800m in both
valleys the surface hoar is down anywhere from 30- 50 and reactive to ski
cutting on steep rolls and banks. In the afternoon the sun effect was
creating moist loose surface avalanches on south through west aspects up to
size 2. Great day, felt like spring.
Brad White
IFMGA Mountain Guide
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