[MCR] Vermilion peak area and Observation peak, BNP, AB

Subject: [MCR] Vermilion peak area and Observation peak, BNP, AB
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2012 23:03:22 -0700
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. _______________________________________________
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