Just a quick update on conditions in Rogers Pass
before everyone heads out for the weekend.
I was back up Connaught Ck. on Thursday Nov.12 – the weather
was quite cool (-10.0) with broken skies and light to moderate winds out of the
North West – there had been a couple of centimeters overnight at the most
and only a few flakes during the day. From snow observations it appears that
approximately 40 to 50 cms. of snow had accumulated from Tuesday and Wednesdays
stormy weather.
There was no evidence of a significant avalanche cycle
related to this loading in the draingage – though snow may have sluffed
off the steep north slopes of Cheops, the wind and recent snow had covered any
evidence of it.
We did a profile and a bunch of probing on the upper slopes
below Bruins pass and Pk. 8812 at approximately 2350m. – the total snow
depth at the profile was 195cm. and probing showed a consistent 185 on the
slopes above – Valley bottom is still around 50-60cms. and at mid
elevations there was 120 -150cms.).
There was a repeatable moderate Compression Test result down
50cms. from the surface, but it was resistant planar in nature (means it didn’t
fail quickly and slide off the column). This appeared to be at the storm snow
interface. We had nothing cracking or breaking while trail breaking or skiing
during the day, nor did we experience any whumpfs. Ski penetration was about
25-30cms. All in all things “Felt” pretty good where the snow was
deep and the skiing was quite good for sure.
I still have a little lingering uncertainty on North aspects
(I haven’t skied any yet) as there were several clear nights (Nov.3-4)
last week and I know there was definitely some surface hoar at the parking lot –
so I guess I would poke around a bit on sheltered north aspects to see what was
going on there.
The trail out the drainage was in good shape though it is
getting quite fast as a result of the significant increase in skier traffic
since I was last there on Monday – lots of lines are skied out in the
Ursus Minor trees area and the gullies that you have to descend to gain the
valley trail are also pretty sporty with lots of Alder and ski tracks –
just so you know!
Have fun and keep it real – remember moderate lines
can be fun too!
Scott Davis
ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide
