[MCR] Emerald Lake Slide Path

Subject: [MCR] Emerald Lake Slide Path
Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2012 20:37:54 -0700
My friend Marc and I enjoyed blue bird weather today at Emerald Lake.  We skied terrain between 1300 and 2400m elev.  HS varied between 135 cm at the bottom of the path and 230cm near ridgetop.  Compression tests yielded easy collapse down 10cm and resistant planar down 35cm.  We stayed away from S aspects as the solar affects today were signficant with sloughing and pinwheels (rocky peak looker's R of main path).  The majority of the cornice feature above the gully looker's L has collapsed with no result on the slope below.

Of most importance, we observed significant surface hoar from the Lake up to about 2100m elevation.  It was still standing when we skied down at 1400h.  Plate size 4-8mm.  This could cause concern when buried by future snowfall.

Overall, excellent skiing through ankle deep storm snow, although this path has seen a lot of traffic since the last storm event, and fresh tracks below 2100m are getting more difficult to find.

Brent Peters
AAG
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