Trophy Range- South Cariboos, Clearwater, BC.
Dec 8-10, 2010
Weather The freezing level rose to about 900m around mid-day on Dec 8, with air temperatures falling to around -8.0 deg on the 9th at 2000m. Winds remained light with a few short gusts of moderate only at ridgeline. Total storm snow amount is 20 cm at 2100m.
Snowpack Currently, snowpack heights remain well below average at tree line for this time of year, in this location, with only 1.0 m of snow at 2100m.
There was surface hoar forming yesterday to 5mm at tree line and below, this new surface is relatively wide spread. The new snow is overlying a mostly soft unconsolidated snowpack except where last weekends temperature inversion created a layer of denser snow on sunnier aspects above 1600m. Snowpack tests did not produce any clean shears between the new and old snow surfaces. Pockets of buried surface hoar from Dec 7th at tree line and below are very isolated and currently non-reactive to tests. Did not find the basal rain crust above 2000m.
Avalanches Ski cutting only produces very minor sluffing. With the relatively warm air temps from this past storm the new snow seems to be sticking like glue. We did not observe any natural avalanches including steep north facing or leeward terrain.
Terrain We have been skiing on moderately angled chute and gully features in north facing terrain at treeline. This is where there is enough coverage and a slightly firmer base to do some skiing. Any wind exposed alpine terrain is basically un-skiable and below 1900 meters it is still survival skiing. Ski quality was fine with about 15-20 cm of ski pen.
Dana Foster Ludwig - Ski Guide Snowy Mountain Alpine Tours Blue River - Clearwater BC P 250 674 2988 www.snowymountain.ca
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