[MCR] Monashee Mountains, West of the Perry River, NE of the Gorge non m

Subject: [MCR] Monashee Mountains, West of the Perry River, NE of the Gorge non motorized area, March 24th, 2010.
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 10:24:53 -0600
Just finished 6 days snowcat supported ski touring in the Western side  of the 
Monashees, north of the Trans Canada Highway. As I am sure everyone on the 
planet has heard, conditions are still tricky there and triggering large 
avalanches on surface hoar down approximately 1 meter is still a grave concern. 

Conditions seem slightly better in this neighbourhood than elsewhere in the 
Columbias. LOTS of observations of the snowpack have kept us comfortable skiing 
on some moderately steep south facing terrain where we know there are some sun 
crusts up to 8 cms thick above the surface hoar layers. We are only skiing this 
terrain one at a time after cold clear nights and before the full heat of the 
day and the sun is on them. This may change if the forecast for snow is correct.

North and east facing terrain still has us spooked, especially during the 
recent warm spells.  The weak layers are still there above 1400m but in all our 
observations are buried by a sufficiently strong and widespread slab. That is 
why we have stopped getting whumphs and cracking. This only means that the slab 
is harder to trigger but the consequences remain catastrophic. On these aspects 
in our neighbourhood, the alpine is generally less of a concern than treeline.  
I believe I have never so consistently and continuously used safety measures to 
spread out my load on the terrain. 

It is a bit like hanging around with a polar bear tied up with 7mm cord. You 
want to see it cut loose from far away and it is definitely uncool to poke at 
it.

Having said all this we have been having some excellent skiing and been 
cautiously exploring some big new terrain on the cold days and pulling in on 
the reins during the warmth.  



Larry Stanier
ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide
laristan@xxxxxxxxx
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