Out from five days in the Cariboos west of the village of Blue River
Weather
Big rain event during the day on November 27th, wind and light snow on the 28th followed by 35 cm of new snow on the 29th and a clear blue sky day on the 30th.
Air temp Dec 1st am was -15.0 c.
Alpine (lmtd obs)
Tree Line Snowpack - Test Profile 1700 m
-As of Dec 1st there is 185 cm of snow at 1220m and 250cm at 1700m NE aspect.
-35 cm of new snow is now overlying theNov 27th rain crust, here it was 2 cm thick and un-supportive, the new snow was not reactive to tests or ski cutting yet near the crust interface.
-Below the rain crust the upper 150cm of the snowpack appeared to be very well settled with no shears found at this site.
-I could not find buried SH in the upper or mid-pack at this location.
Below Treeline
Here conditions are a much different story!
-The Nov 27th rain crust is industrial below tree line and now there is 15-20 cm of low density new snow and a thick layer of surface hoar ( up to 20mm) sitting on top.
-At this point the new snow/surface hoar is un-reactive to ski cutting in steep or un-supported features. Except for the classic SH tinkle-shus when you ski it.
-Snowpack depths are certainly above threshold in all below tree line avalanche features such as avalanche run outs, fans, cut blocks, creek gullies and road cuts.
Avalanches
-Several wet loose avalanches ran during the rain event in steep features including the lower portion of avalanche run outs and fans.
-As the weather cleared on the 30th I observed a few isolated wet loose and very soft slab storm snow releases in steep terrain with direct solar heating at various elev. running mid-path.
-I did not observe any large or deep slab avalanches at this location.
Outlook
Cornices are getting large, tender and ripe in the alpine and overall I would be leaning to stay out of large features and sticking to lower angle terrain in the alpine until the latest precip inputs, wind events etc.. have found their happy place.
The biggest concern I have right now is below tree line where the rain crust, new snow/surface hoar combo is just waiting for additional loading such as new snow or a wind event.
Skiing healed up with deep dust on crust, coverage is excellent for this time of year and the tree line snowpack here is looking good so far!
Dana Foster
Ski Guide
CAA Professional Member
Snowy Mountain Alpine Tours
Blue River - Clearwater BC
P 250 674 2988