Just back from a spectacular day in Rogers Pass with amazing
skiing and travel at all elevations thanks to last night's great freeze (-5 at
the Hermit Parking Lot at 4:30am and nothing but stars!).
The recent storm deposited up to 30cms of powder above 2000m.
overtop a 10cm thick Melt Freeze crust - it appeared well bonded and the new snow
generally lacked any real slab properties unless affected by winds (mostly
observed downflow wind effect). Below 2000m. the storm snow had formed a 5 cm. Styrofoam
like crust overnight, this softened into some great corn once the sun got
on it, with the lower crust being well frozen it carried skiers easily
all the way to valley bottom (1330m.) as late as noon.
There were some loose dry and moist/wet avalanches out of
steep sun effected terrain mostly small (size 1-1.5) - with lots of old
activity (last week) up to size 3.5 that started as loose wet avalanches that
then triggered deep destructive wet slab avalanches. This includes the
explosive control results that the Parks Control Team had, that covered the
highway with snow and lots of trees in 2 locations (again that was during the
last major warmup). Right now things are cold up high, but as things warm up
this spring, I would be concerned about large overhead solar slopes, especially
ones with drippy cornices looming above.
Travel was easy with great bootpacking up to 2000m. and good
tracksetting with skis above that. I made it to within 100m. of the Col on Mt.
Rogers East face when I aborted after running into the aforementioned downflow
windslab at 3150m. up to that point the snow had limited wind effect. I saw no
wind effect on Little Sifton (which I climbed after skiing down from Mt. Rogers.
How things will be tomorrow will have a lot to do with how
much crust formation we get - I am sure there is still dry snow on steep N
aspects above 2100m even after today's sunshine - the question is how long will
things hold together down low once the sun gets on them.
As my Great, Great, Great, Grampa used to say - "Timing
is Everything, next to Location, Location, Location - which is of course All
about TIMING!"
Oh ya, he also used to say - "When the SKIING IS GOOD -
GO SKIING!
Cheers,
Scott Davis
ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide