[MCR] Rogers Pass February 19-21

Greetings,

 

We received  20 - 30 cm’s of light density new snow in the last three days, moderate temps -4 to -9. Light winds Treeline and below but today we heard moderate to strong Southerly winds in the Alpine. Snowing up to 2cm an hour when we left this afternoon.

 

Feb 19 we skied below treeline in the Dispatcher area. Light deep powder, little reactivity to skiing.

 

Feb 20 we skied into the Alpine on the Sir Donald/Vaux Moraine up to 2236 meters.   From the valley up to mid Treeeline we had occasional wumpfing and cracking from the surface hoar atop the suncrust 30cm down. The snow atop this layer was not firm enough yet to be a cohesive slab. This area was not wind affected, excellent skiing.

 

Feb 21 we skied Teddy Bear trees up Connaught creek. In an open Below treeline slope, stability tests produced easy sudden planar results with the layer of concern being the Feb 9^th surface hoar atop the sun crust now 45 cm’s down. Wind affected areas here were quickly developing a surface soft slab, upside down snow conditions with shooting cracks that propagated  up to 10 meters.  Within the trees the snow remained excellent.

 

I suspect that wind affected and especially wind loaded avalanche slopes now have the necessary new snow load and slab density to be potentially skier triggered.

Eric Dumerac- Professional Mountain Guide
✆ 403-609-1564 
Mountain Skills Academy 

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