Taking advantage of the break in the weather I spent the day in the Fingers today.
WEATHER – Yesterdays storm ended late last night and there was no snow today until late in the afternoon. The next storm has started and looks like it will last until Thursday am. No wind today but evidence of moderate downslope winds at the end of yesterday’s storm.
AVALANCHE ACTIVITY - There was a cycle of avalanches in the Fingers sometime near the end of yesterdays storm (there was about 5cms of snow on the deposits) with several size 2.5’s. avalanches running well into the usual ski terrain. Ski cuts today on small steep convex rolls in areas with no wind effect produced only minor sluffing that stopped quickly. May be a different story where the wind has gotten at things
TRAVEL CONDITIONS – If you weren’t walking on old avalanche deposit the trail breaking was in the 30-50cms deep range (which was plenty deep enough believe me!). The skiing was basically amazing knee deep powder if you avoided where the avalanches had run. I couldn’t identify any surface hoar on the Jan.4/2013 interface but you could tell where it was in the snowpack.
On the Good side the avalanches have definitely covered lots of alder – on the bad side smaller avalanche may run farther in the future as lots of things have been smoothed over buy this cycle.
Have a great New Year,
Scott Davis
ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide