we skied the Little Sifton traverse today under mainly sunny skies & cool temps.
temps ranged from -20 in the Visitor Centre parking lot to -10 on Grizzly
shoulder. winds were light from the North East with the occasional moderate
gust. wind chill on the descent down the Hermit side was enough to give us all
frost nip. climbing up the Grizzly side with the sun for company was quite
pleasant.
dry settled powder was found under the trees on the climb at lower elevations,
but open areas higher in elevation have heavy solar effect, with areas of crust
over 10cm thick. we elected to cut new trail as the main one is steep, rounded
& rock hard. i strongly recommend using ski crampons if one elects to use the
main path. travel conditions improved once above treeline & and non-solar
aspects. wind has redistributed any new snow into 5-10cm thick soft slabs. we
observed minor cracking (1m or less) under ski while cutting trail.
descent down the Hermit side was agreeable, with wind press & soft slab
covering old ski tracks - of which there are many. these have yet to facet out
(in the cold temps) to something softer than speed bumps. of note was a recent
cornice release from the ridge on skier’s right that ran a considerable
distance thru the ski lines, terminating near the middle of the main avalanche
track running from the Hermit meadows. size of the chunks were at least sofa
sized, if not bigger. at lower elevation there was less evidence of new snow
and areas appeared as though they were in a ski resort, with moguls starting to
form! it’s been busy back there… and with the clear weather forecasted the
next several days not much will change.
cheers,
dave healey
acmg ski guide
revelstoke, bc
_______________________________________________
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