[MCR] Frisby Creek Apr. 2-5

Weather and snow:

Flew into Frisby creek on the 2nd, and was pleasantly surprised by the return of winter! Previous overnight and continued convective flurries amounted to 10cm of HST that settled then melted to a crust to 1800m by the PM of the 2nd. Continued flurries on the 3rd, and some significant snow overnight early on the 4th with cold (-9) temps brought another 20cm of low density to the Alpine. Continued cold nights were refreezing the valley bottoms up to 1800m. Snow depth in the valley bottom at 1500m was 225cm, at 2400m on the south over ground it was 335cm, and on north glaciers at 2400m it was 450cm+.

Avalanche Activity:

We saw widespread evidence of the March 28th warm cycle, mostly on solar aspects and below some areas with massive glide cracks, but only some isolated older slabs to size 2 from north facing alpine steep terrain. During our trip, storm slabs to size two had run from the steep, north and northeast slopes, primarily releasing from rocky features at 45 to 50 degrees. We saw no evidence of step down even below cornice triggered storm slabs. The most obvious sign of instability from this strange winter was the extensive glide cracks on all aspects up to treeline.

Skiing: 

The best skiing was on true north and northeast aspects in the Alpine, especially the 30cm of low density snow on the 4th. The snow stayed light on shaded aspects down to 1800m, and south aspects had moist snow over the April 3rd crust in the PM, not quite corn, but very skiable. The snow carried surprisingly well down to valley bottom despite daytime freezing levels rising to 1800m on the 5th.

L. Shepherd, S. Gagnon, J. Wright  ASGs

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