[MCR] Kokanee Glacier Dec 11-16

Conditions from a CAA Avalanche Operations Level 1 course being held up at Kokanee Glacier Cabin near Nelson, BC.

Since December 11 we've had 90cm of new snow fall at the hut.  The storm came in warm but quickly cooled off so the top 60cm is super light and fluffy snow (60kg/m3) - incredible skiing!

Its been an interesting week of weather with lots of new snow and wind, however the snowpack is healing quite well.  The only real significant shear in the snowpack around here is the December 7 facet/surface hoar interface.  Depending on what aspect its anywhere from largish facets (south) to rounding surface hoar (north), its approximately 80-90 cm down rom the surface and producing moderate to hard compression tests.  The fracture character on this layer is starting to transition to a resistant shear although sudden shears are still occurring here and there.  Of note 2 Rutschblocks dug over the last 2 days have produced RB3's (whole block) on this layer .  All of our snowpack data is from elevations around 2100m on a variety of aspects.

In general its great skiing and our terrain choices are starting to get a little steeper.  We feel pretty good about the stability/hazard but those occasional sudden shears and RB3's have us sensitive to the type of terrain we're travelling in - still cautious about getting onto anything big, steep and convex in the alpine or treeline, especially anywhere where there maybe some buried windslab or thin, facetted areas that could tickle that Dec 7 facet/surface hoar layer.

We fly out on Saturday, but tomorrow is exam day so there is lots of fresh turns left for the next group.

Its great to see winter again, hope everyone is enjoying it!

Ian Tomm

CAA Professional Member

ACMG Ski Guide

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