I have been out touring the past few days in the Vermilion peak area
in Kootenay national park and around Bow lake up the icefields
parkway. Other than the generally well settled "Rockies" snowpack
that everyone seems to be talking about we also found quite a bit of
variability in snowpack stability.
During our two days in Kootenay park we had numerous
"whoomphs" ( collapsing of a weaker layer in the snowpack) and
actually had a skier triggered size 2 slab at around 1900m on a well
supported southwest feature in the trees! This slide would have been
quite ugly had one of us been caught in it. These numerous failures in
the snowpack happened in generally shallower areas and were all
related to the basil facets and depth hoar, depths varied.
Today up around Observation peak we continued to have some quite big
"settlements" in the snowpack which made us stick to smaller well
supported terrain.
Many people seem to be stepping it up in terms of seriousness of
terrain. This is mostly due to a fairly good bridging strength over
the lower weak layers and a good " feeling" in the upper snowpack,
however personally I'll be a bit conservative for a bit longer. It
seems that you could get away with skiing some larger terrain right
now, but if you hit the weak spot, which somehow I have been finding a
lot? I think you may get a larger avalanche than you were hoping for.
Its only January folks, still lots of good skiing to be had for many
months, have fun out there.
Craig McGee, mountain 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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