[MCR] Bow Summit

Subject: [MCR] Bow Summit
Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2010 23:17:48 -0600

A beautiful afternoon today at Bow Summit. Still some decently soft skiing left especially on anything that tips remotely northerly. Unfortunately that is also were you find the surface hoar buried about 35 cm deep and well preserved (10 – 12 mm) at this typical treeline terrain. Frequent wumpfs and easy to moderate sudden planar shear make for a pretty spooky feeling. I attribute the lack of skier triggering to the lack of cohesiveness in the slab where we skied, but that could be different in areas with different slab characteristics, i.e. wind loading or warming for example.

 

We also saw some recent (typical spring) slab avalanches on the south-westerly aspects of Observation Peak, which started at ridge line and ran about 600 meters.

 

We also took a peak at the beautiful male Grizzly that is hanging out at the usual “bear-hang” on the CP rails - I’m sure you know where – unfortunately it’s probably just a matter of time that we’ll read of his demise in the paper…..  

 

Cheers,

Jorg Wilz

Mountain Guide (ACMG / VDBS / IFMGA)

 

OnTop ltd.
www.ontopmountaineering.com
1-800 506 7177 or (001) 403 678 2717

 

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