[MCR] White Queen, Whitewater backcountry - Nelson BC

Subject: [MCR] White Queen, Whitewater backcountry - Nelson BC
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:35:03 -0800
A few observations from a quick lap of White Queen near the Whitewater ski area. We skied up the west ridge from Humming Bird Pass into a near white-out so observations of adjacent slopes were not possible.

At 9AM in Nelson the air temperature was a balmy +2 then -1 at the Evening Ridge parking lot (elevation 1490m) a half hour later. The past week's storm snow had filled in the up-track, but trail breaking off the track was easy with only ankle to cuff deep ski penetration. Not much wind slab formation in the new snow even on the summit, but lots of buried wind slab above 1900m. I stayed off anything steep, so didn't get a feel for how well the bonding was for these layers. It was -6 on the summit just past noon, so it looked like the predicted cooling trend had started.

The ski back down on a south-west aspect was great fun on the supportive layers below the storm snow. We skied conservatively, skiing steeper slopes one at a time and avoiding steep, unsupported terrain. Some sloughing occurred on steeper terrain, but it didn't run far or gather much mass. A skier coming in above the previous skier's track was able to cut off some blocks of slab (15-20cm thick) which would tumble down the slope, but this was possible only in steep terrain (>40 deg). In all, a pleasant and uneventful morning of touring.

Would have been interesting to see what the various parties who joined us on the summit observed after they scattered in different directions on their descents...

Craig Hollinger,
ACMG Apprentice Ski Guide.
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