Nov. 29 Hilda Ridge again

Today @ Hilda Ridge...very noteworthy going on's.



35 degree NE slope @1040 am -18c scattered cloud

lee convex test slope open

95cm HS at test site pit dug in "start zone" just under roll beneath expected break over

Extended column propogation test and layers as follows



New surface hoar on top widespread to above treeline where observations were ended (high point) hoar size approx 2-4mm depending where



-------------95cm surface



1 finger hard slab



------------76cm possible burried surface hoar layer Q1 clean sudden shear across entire block ECTV on back cut



4F slab



------------65cm



fist facetted / facetting snow



------------30cm top of rain crust Q2 shear clean across entire block sudden failure on ECT1 on rain crust



fist facets



_______ground



Tested by digging extended column pit, the upper layer @ 76cm top slab fell off on the back cut clean across the block sudden planar Q1, I then placed shovel on side and on the very first easy tap from wrist the rest of the snow down to the rain crust collapsed and fell off all the way clean across the block with a slight jump upward through the mashy facetts Q2.



We cut the slope 2x and both times where able to easily trigger off the surface slab....very touchy. Cracking, propogating.

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Also on the SW aspect the snowpack was nothing more than 20-50cm's (variable depth) of facetts. Where the pack was closer to 20cm's the facetts were fucking HUGE all the way through. No support at all. Higher up in the open pads there was a solar crust forming up that was behaving like a slab as it's sitting on nothing more than sugar shit.



Alpine was garbage and nothing more than a mix of wind fuck and slab on facetts. Repeated a quick test just above treeline in a more supportive wind compressed spot on a breakover convex slope, not as abrupt of a convexity with some "supportive" wind fuck. ECT22 but it went clean at Q1 sudden planar....didn't bother recording this one.

Nov. 27 Crowfoot Glades

Jeff, Jason, Don and myself went to check out the progress of Crowfoot today. Conditions are great up near treeline. Still alot of sharks waiting to bite the p-tex lunch, but no one hit any today. It's scrappy down low still, but the upper stuff is nice. Watch for slab in the alpine that is now covered in fresh snow. Put first tracks in to one of of the chutes, and then did a lap in the glades.

Will be adding more pics later when Don sends them. Pics are of Don, Jason and Jeff.

Nov. 26 Parkers Powder

Jason and I found some nice snow @ treeline in Parkers Ridge today.

Class 1 NNE 35 degree wind loaded convex lee slope natural +1 sympathetic release of same size. Crown approx 60cm, run 25m, 10 metre wide at crown. Moderate wind gusting to strong north easterly. S+1 2130metres elevation.

Nov. 25 Helen Lake area recon

Went up to Helen Lake area to have a look at some stuff, and see what conditions in the alpine are like. Lots of cracking and collapsing in wind exposed areas above treeline. SW aspects were looking wind slabbed. Wind slab on top of facetts...yummy. Skier reactive. Should be fun when the snowpack sees an increased load. Very warm up high....inversion??

Best skiing in the subalpine treeline....although scrappy.

Nov. 24 Sunshine conditions

Still limited terrain that's open at SSV. Standish, Wawa, Jackrabbit and Wolverine. Moguls are getting bigger and more snow is getting scraped off. Harder packed, but supposed to start snowing again tommorrow to hopefully freshen things up. Packed runs are skiing nice with most obstacles showing. Be weary of fresh patches.

Nov. 21 Hilda Ridge

Went up to Hilda ridge with Pete, Jason, Darren and Don for some mellow laps today.

Temps were cold at just below -20c. Some isolated small slabs above tree line. Not much for wind.

The lower angle stuff was skiing quite slow, so on our second lap we went lookers left down the slide paths to steepen things up a bit. Very nice run with good snow. Felt the rain crust below treeline. Some cracking on a small lee feature next to the morraines.

Nov. 20 Sunshine Village

Day 2 of Sunshine Village being open. Went up with Jason and we weren't expecting much. We were both pleasantly suprised. Great skiing on the packed snow. Still pockets of fresh, but due to the thin snow pack our tendancy was to ski around them. Were able to open it up a bit in some areas, much fun was had. Ski out was open. Wawa, Jackrabbit, Wolverine, Strawberry, Standish were all spinning. Short laps, but much fun. Ski out was in suprisingly good shape.

Nov. 19th Bow Summit laps

A cold day at Bow Summit. There were about 6 other people skiing there. Jason and I poked around a bit to see what was what as far as snowpack. Went up the wind swept ridge to have a look at the lee slope to see a. how thin it was and b. if it was reactive. Didn't like the look of it, and there were pockets of wind slab above treeline so we skied (punted) our way back down the ridge and had some laps in the "standard" zone.

Good thing the gaper had to pipe up and say "that ridge is always thin". No shit sherlock...it's a windswept ridge, of course it is. Mentioned that we were having a look at the lee slope. "that slope is avy prone". No shit doctor, it's fucking lee slope, early season in the rockies did you see us ski it? People need to not make assumptions and mind their own business. Anyways....can't expect much at Bow Summit.

Skiing was really good below treeline, although still choked with saplings further left.

HS 50cm Light westerly wind @ 2360 and northerly @ridge top raincrust near ground - facetting S-1 air temp -19c @10:30 HST poor bond to crust below treeline

Class 1 avy out of 40 degree east aspect @ approx. 2400m approx 100m run 20 metres wide about 40cm? deep @crown. Scrappy sparse small sapplings cross loaded pockets

Nov. 7th, skin up Kicking Horse

Still a total lack of skiable snow close by the roads so we decided to change it up a bit by checking out kicking Horse.

Carried the skis up the bare runs and eventually were able to skin. Some nice turns were had up near the ridge top.

1. Jeff wondering where the snow is.
2. Jason responds to "dance, monkey!"
3. Looks easier to skin up thataway!
4. Still needs some more...it's coming along though
5. 6. 7. Ahhh yes...worth the effort for sure. Jeff and Jason:

Nov. 4th Mt. Gordon in a day

After failing on Mt. Rhonda and a lack of snow anywhere else, we decided to go have a go on Mt. Gordon as a day trip. The weather was perfect and the views couldn't have been better.

The approach was scrappy and we were just barely able to skin from the parking lot. There were 25cm's fresh on the ground at the parking lot, however above treeline the winds had pretty much taken it all away. All open areas above treeline were wind hammered sastrugi. The lee zones were forming slab and we noted a class 2 on the NE side of Mt. Olive and the same on Mt. Saint Nic.

We arrived on the summit at the late hour of 4pm and enjoyed some of the best views around. Spent 15 minutes taking in the views and then off we went back towards the car. I had forgotten my ice axe near the top and didn't realize it until we were too far down. Thought I would never see it again, however, when I got back from my work hitch I had an email waiting for me with news that my ice axe was waiting for me in Revelstoke. Sweet.

The total trip took 13 hours car to car. Significant time can be shaved off if you wait for enough snow to be able to ski all the way back down through the canyon. We took the summer trail up and the canyon back down. There was still lots of open water to cross on the way down which added time. A fun trip and a very long day.

Oct. 29 failed attempt to bag Rhonda in a day

On Oct. 29 we tried to do a day trip of Mt. Rhonda on the Wapta. We were stopped and turned around by some one needing to be back in Cowtown at a certain time. Oyyy! The weather wasn't ideal anyways. We did have some nice turns back down the slope above the hut.

new video

Here's a video from September and October, more updates to come tommorrow.

Vids are getting better each time. Keep in mind this is very early pre season skiing, and as such it's more about the hunt for turns in shallow snowpack, as opposed to ripping fast lines.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzZSxImMNBA