Crownin' around

La qualité du hors-piste était:

Excellente

Les conditions de neige étaient :

• Poudreuse

Nous avons parcouru:

• Forêt dense
• Pentes de faible inclinaison

Conditions d'avalanche

• Avalanches de plaque datant d'aujourd'hui ou d'hier.
• Whoumfs ou bruits sourds ou fissures qui se propagent.

Today we went to Crown Mountain to keep assessing the distribution of the persistent slab problem in the South Rockies region.

As we were sledding to our destination, we observed a few natural size 1 loose dry avalanches out of steep alpine features one size 1 persistent slab avalanche, failing on buried surface hoar.

We found up to 50 cm of soft snow at the surface of the snow pack. On north aspects, this has fallen on a layer of buried surface hoar. On south aspects, this has fallen on top of a melt freeze crust. In our snow pit test we had a propagating result on the persistent weak layer (ECTP13 down 45). The soft snow has been redistributed by wind in the alpine, creating pockets of wind slab.

As we were moving through terrain, the wind was moderate from the NE and was blowing snow around at higher elevations. We were able to see cornices and wind slab actively forming. As we were skinning up a low-angle slope, we were getting a significant amount of settlement (whumpfing) so we decided to test a small slope on our skis to see how reactive the softer snow would be on the surface hoar, and we got a reactive result (see photo). The persistent slab problem is a major player in this area. After digging in the snowpack, and testing the slope, we made the decision to ski down our low-angle skin track and back to our snowmobiles.