Just spent a couple of days this past weekend in the Mount Cartier-
Ghost Peak area SE of the Revelstoke Mountain Resort. We skied out in
the late afternoon of Saturday April 23rd, so this information is a
few days old.
We found a variety of conditions: Good powder snow on true North
aspects down to 2000m. Windslabs at ridge tops and below. Temperature/
suncrusts on all solar aspects. On these aspects, we found 5cm of
moist/wet snow on the surface sitting on a 3-4cm supportive crust
(before it got cooked and too weak to support the weight of a skier).
We backed off our larger objective (NE face of Cartier) due to
windslabs on big convex features but found excellent powder on several
North facing slopes as well as good corn on E and S aspects.
Some moist point releases had triggered thin slab avalanches to sz 2
on East aspects. The day before our arrival, a party of skiers had
triggered a sz 1.5 avalanche, 20-30cm deep on a SW aspect, 40 degrees
steep.
Our main concerns were very large cornices, windslabs and multiple
crusts buried on solar aspects. We skied up to 40 degrees slopes on
North aspect.
Surface hoar to 4mm was observed Sunday morning. These crystals were
destroyed by the sun during the day on solar aspects but may have
remained intact on North slopes at higher elevation and could have
been buried by yesterday snow showers.
The ski out from our camp between Mt Cartier and Ghost Peak to the RMR
boundary took 3.5hrs and is truly a spectacular tour on a high ridge
affording breathtaking views of the Monashees and Selkirk Mountains.
We found this area challenging as it presents big, steep and complex
terrain that can be difficult to avoid. Conditions need to be
favourable and a great deal of experience is required to navigate
safely through this big mountain terrain.
Sylvain Hebert
ACMG Ski Guide
_______________________________________________
These observations and opinions are those of the person who submitted them. The
ACMG and its members take no responsibility for errors, omissions, or lapses in
continuity. Conditions differ greatly over time and space due to the variable
nature of mountain weather and terrain. Application of this information
provides no guarantee of increased safety. Do not use the Mountain Conditions
Report as the sole factor in planning trips or making decisions in the field.
Please check out http://acmg.ca/mcr for more information.
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