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
