[MCR] Bow Hut Avalanches

Hello Fellow Skiers,

I just finished a quick overnight trip to the Bow Hut and thought I'd throw out a few observations we made. 

The first, and most significant was the release of a few avalanches above the hut within the last 24hrs (probably last night). All the slopes below the seracs had avalanched. No real surprise given their location, but one in particular got my attention. The slope directly above the hut had also released size 2.5 or so. The crown was a meter plus for about 80 meters and I'd guess 2 m on its edges. To clarify, this slope is immediately below the short cut approach to Olive/St Nick col, but off the glacier. Unlike the others, there is no large overhead trigger on this one. The bed surface wasn't ground, so it seems there is another layer to blame out there besides the depth hoar we all talk about. I'll be giving overhead hazards a lot more respect in the next while (ie cornices).

The other observation was how the cold tightened everything up. Even the approach slope to the hut had an eery sound/feel to it compared to the evening before. We chose to ski it one at a time. As you can guess the skiing was slow because of the cold snow. This morning it was -27 with moderate west winds off the glacier. 

Just a few thoughts that came through my head as it thawed out on the drive home.

--
Matt Mueller
403-688-4341

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