Found Winter Up High

Soumis par: rossik.21
Date d'observation: mercredi 10 janvier 2024 à 05 h 00
Localisation: 53.869760° N 121.666360° W
Rapport concernant: Conditions de neige

Express

Avalanche

Manteau neigeux

Météo

Incident

Conditions de neige

La qualité du hors-piste était:

Excellente

Les conditions de neige étaient :

Croûtée
Poudreuse abondante
Poudreuse

Nous avons parcouru:

Forêt dense
Pentes de faible inclinaison
Forêt dégagée

Nous sommes restés à l'écart de:

Pentes alpines
Pentes convexes
Pentes raides

Information

La journée était:

De tempête

Conditions d'avalanche

30 cm + de neige fraîche ou transport important de neige par le vent ou pluie au cours des dernières 48 heures

Commentaires

Went on an exploratory mission to Sugarbowl today to investigate the quality of the uptrack and to see if we could find winter. The lower mountain is a mess- pretty well no snow in the trees from the parking lot to around 1350 m. The only snow here was the recent storm snow and it overlies frozen ground and ice. We bootpacked this section to around 1400 m where we were able to begin skinning.

Drastic change in snowpack between 1400-1500 m. Above here, the snowpack was surprisingly deep (our pit was 150 cms, see photo), and is 20-30 cms of light powder on top of a 10 cm thick crust. Made for some really good turns at the top.

The return downhill bootpack to the car was treacherous and icy, with many obstacles to navigate and a few butt slides.

The lower mountain is very dangerous and not to be taken lightly- we knew what we were getting into, but the hazards of the lower mountain make any mission into the alpine very serious. I would not recommend travel unless you are confident managing a variety of hazards both on your skins and boot packing, in both directions.

Snowpack at 1550 m. Snow depth was 150 cms.
25 cms of powder on top of a 10 cm thick ice crust. Faceting beneath the ice crust. There is a second ice crust about 45 cms down, and one near the bottom. Lower snowpack was very solid with minimal faceting. No sign of buried surface hoar.
Performed a 30 x 30 compression test. The storm snow failed as a cohesive slab after 15 taps (moderate). The ice crust also failed in the High range (25 taps). — Snowpack at 1550 m. Snow depth was 150 cms. 25 cms of powder on top of a 10 cm thick ice crust. Faceting beneath the ice crust. There is a second ice crust about 45 cms down, and one near the bottom. Lower snowpack was very solid with minimal faceting. No sign of buried surface hoar. Performed a 30 x 30 compression test. The storm snow failed as a cohesive slab after 15 taps (moderate). The ice crust also failed in the High range (25 taps).

The only snow below 1400 m was the fresh 5 cms from this storm on top of ice.