[MCR] Selkirk Mountains - Rogers Pass - Connaught Ck. Ursus Minor area N

Subject: [MCR] Selkirk Mountains - Rogers Pass - Connaught Ck. Ursus Minor area Nov.18/09
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:55:22 -0800

This is from yesterday (Nov.18/09) but I didn’t get a chance to send it out last night.

 

Just a quick update since the last warm/windy weather event of Monday and Tuesday (Nov.16/17).

 

Fortunately the rain from Tuesday morning didn’t climb too high so the thin breakable crust that formed petered out once you had passed the Frequent Flyer slide path just after the bridge. By the way this path did run and cross the trail sometime Monday or early Tuesday AM (a friend let me know that it was already down when they went up on Tuesday).

 

The biggest thing of note is that this last system was accompanied by high winds so I would expect there are some significant depositions on lee features especially in the alpine terrain.

 

We stuck to treeline and lower terrain on Wednesday and found approximately 15-20cms. of low density snow had fallen since Tuesday PM – this was sitting on a somewhat stiffer 20cm. thick layer (four fingers resistance) that had formed during the warming and wind of Tuesday – below that it was a little softer but still in the 4 finger range and about another 25cms thick – so I would estimate that they had received around 40-50 cms of storm snow plus wind transport.

 

We did note a shear in the top 15-20 and I managed to intentionally ski cut this weakness in one confined gully – and it didn’t go as a loose snow sluff but instead propagated as a thin slab and cleaned out the chute running quite fast at the bottom – though it wasn’t a deep deposit it would have been a rude thing to hit you from behind if you were to have just skied into it “willy nilly”.

 

Wednesday was much cooler than the previous 2 days with snowshowers accompanied by moderate to strong North West winds that calmed down later in the day.

 

I didn’t get out today, but I can tell you that the next system hit here Wednesday evening and it hasn’t stopped precipitating since with the snowline just a few hundred feet above town (saves me doing all that shoveling) – I would hazard a guess at another 20-30cms of snow over the last 24hrs.

 

I guess I would echo Dale Marcoux words from the coast – in that I feel that this snowpack needs a little time to settle all this new load – unfortunately (or fortunately) it looks as though the snow is going to keep on coming – so be real out there and balance the yahoo fun with prudent route finding and safety measures (you know one at a time and don’t hang out below your buddy taking videos – all that  stuff) – the skiing is great  so enjoy it – for a LONG TIME!

 

Cheers,

 

Scott Davis

ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide

 

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