Skiied up in the Crowfoot area today, to skier’s left
of the actual glades on an open north aspect. At that exposed alpine location
and elevation (2100 metREs), there was only evidence of one of the upper
problem layers (down 35 cm) but it was primarily facetted. I had to look
pretty hard to find surface hoar crystals but there were still some little
buggers in there. High moderate results with weak fracture characteristics plus
an absence of surface slab made for 3 great laps. Trail breaking (N, NE
aspects) up through the trees wasn’t too bad at about 15 cm of ski
penetration, although there was the odd (and sometimes even) facet hole lurking.
The Parks Canada bulletin weather forecast was pretty much
spot-on with light convective flurries and cloud all day which kept the temperatures
down and solar heating virtually non-existent – it stayed below zero all
day. We started out with about 3 cm of new and probably another 1 cm fell
during the day.
Ken
Bélanger
TopCog
Adventures
ACMG
Assistant Ski Guide
CAA
Level 2