Just finishing guiding a ski touring week
at Ice Creek Lodge, SE of Nakusp in the Valhalla mountain range. The last week
of winter brought good conditions to this part of the South Columbias.
Over the week, a variety of
storms delivered 65cm of new snow with generally cool temperatures. This storm
snow settled to 45cm, overlies a variety of snow surfaces that were buried March
14th, and is bonding well. A freezing rain layer formed mid-storm on the 16th
but was quickly covered by new snow.
The weak layer formed by
the extended mid-winter drought is down 100- 140cm, and produced hard sudden
planar snowpack test results in some areas, and no results in others. We didn't
experience any whumphs or settlements, even in shallow alpine areas (moraines
and windswept ridges). The upper snowpack is well settled.
A wind event from the
northwest on March 18th created softslabs on lee and crossloaded Alpine
features, and we observed several natural slab avalanches to size 2 on the 18th
and 19th. 20cm of new snow on March 20th came with cold temps (-12) and moderate
to strong westerly winds. We observed only loose dry avalanches size 1-1.5.
Cornices are growing and looked fragile.
We managed our risks while
skiing avalanche terrain by avoiding steep start zones, keeping our loads light
on slopes, and choosing our regrouping areas carefully. Although the drought
layer was inactive this week, it wouldn't be a surprise to see avalances failing
at this interface later this spring with warming or another big storm.
Ramin Sherkat SG
Judson Wright
ASG