2014/15 Coast Mountain Conditions

[Alex]

About 60cm+ of nicely consolidated snow (didn't hit any rocks) around 2000m in the Tenquille area. A bit of a wind / temperature skin on certain aspects at that elevation, but we managed to find decent snow. There was actually thin (10cm) wind slab (wind skin?) that actually fractured 10m wide and ran a decent ways. It was only in one area on a fairly steep (for October) ridge that had some obvious wind effect.

But now for the TGR style trip report:
Epic slog misch into this super secret place that no one except me knows about. We slayed deep pow in the white room. All Time. Probable first descent. We packed light and only brought two 6 packs of beer each. Have I said epic yet?









(the beer actually wasn't an exaggeration)

[maurop]

Skied up in the Duffey over the weekend. About 40cm somewhat consolidated base on Saturday at 2000m, -2 daytime temps. 10-15cm overnight, -6 in the morning. Great turns, if slightly shallow. Saw evidence of activity across the valley on a steep south facing aspect. Otherwise everything was stable. Looking forward to more pow!

[Alex]

Sweet! Did it warm up at all on Saturday? Tenquille got warm for a few hours below 1900m, then it cooled down again overnight and into Sunday.

[maurop]

We left from Pemberton at around 8.30, and there was fresh snow on the Duffey. So ya, I'm guessing it warmed up a bit since we got rained on! But it definitely cooled down as the day went on. Made the turns on Sunday worth the effort.

[Alex]

Lots of people at Keith's hut this weekend. Saturday was nice, Sunday was a bit cloudy.

130cm HS @ 2400m on an East aspect (top of the Anniversary). There was a clean moderate hard sheer about 15-20cm down. No obvious interface. Evidence of one natural observed on SE aspect on Joffre (same weakness). Didn't detect any other weakness lower in the snow pack.

Early Season:




Spot the lone snowshoer


Powder

[Valdez Telehead]

Wonderful Alex. Current stoke is good. I have no idea where that is? "Coast Mountains" is pretty broad. Duffeys?

[Alex]

VT:
"The Coast Mountains are approximately 1,600 kilometres (990 mi) long and average 300 kilometres (190 mi) in width.^[2] Its southern and southeastern boundaries are surrounded by the Fraser River and the Interior Plateau while its far northwestern edge is delimited by the Kelsall and Tatshenshini Rivers at the north end of the Alaska Panhandle, beyond which are the Saint Elias Mountains, and by Champagne Pass in the Yukon Territory.^[3][4] Covered in dense temperate rainforest on its western exposures, the range rises to heavily glaciated peaks, including the largest temperate-latitude icefields in the world. It then tapers to the dry Interior Plateau on its eastern flanks, or to the subarctic boreal forest of the Skeena Mountains and Stikine Plateau."

We could refer to this area as the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains, but if someone from Rupert or Terrace posted about the Kitimat ranges it could easily fall into this category due to the low posting of anyone in the Coast Mountains (although a lot of cool skiing happens up there), and the low population from here to Alaska. The Coast Mountains also share quite a similar snowpack, except for maybe the Boundary ranges... which is more Alaska. I could be more specific and say Sea-to-Sky or South West BC, but I kinda like the broader name for the area, and it's also what we often refer to the range as here.
The Duffey is simply short for the Duffey Lake Road, which is about 1 hour north-east of Whistler.

[maurop]

Alex, what was the snow depth at Motel 66 (2000m)? I'm headed back up to the Duffey this weekend, although the forecast doesn't look great.

Awesome pics, looks like you had great skiing!

[Alex]

Maurop - I'd guess 60cm, but I never probed there. That was just about where the snowpack got acceptable. Below that it was scant. Both routes to the glacier have BS. Either tree BS or thin rocky BS. Pick your poison.

[Alex]

The wet snow / rain saturated the snow pack pretty high up. There wasn't much powder over the concrete. Still fun though. I forgot to check the snow depth. Everything should tighten up pretty nicely.

[maurop]

Was up in the Duffey from Saturday to Monday. Generally, conditions went from warm and dry, to cold and dry (-20 in the morning), with about 10cm deposited on top of a consolidated base, varying in depth. A solid crust was present in most places and elevations. Sunday through Monday strong winds redistributed snow. Small windslabs formed, somewhat touchy. Some size 1's were seen, but generally decent stability for the conditions. Ski mountaineering is fun right now!

[Alex]

More Duffey pictures again. As Maurop said, it was cold... and windy. We found the re-distributed snow to be forming isolated pockets of slabs, but we couldn't make anything budge at all (no shooting cracks or anything). The bond between the old snow and new light snow seemed pretty good.
Two different parties skied the Aussie couloir, one on the 10th and another on the 11th. Word is the snow was really good, but there was one section that was rotten and hollow that made climbing difficult.

We found enjoyable snow on the Anniversary and South-East shoulder of Joffre

[maurop]

Alex, driving back the other day the slots looked pretty grim on the glacier. Are they really as bad as they look? It's been putting me off of heading up there, not to mention the crowds at Keith's... The skiing has been pretty great so far! I'm looking forward to the days when I can ski closer to home though.

[Alex]

Maurop, It's pretty mellow. The lookers right of the Anniversary is pretty tame. The wind has also been filling things in quite nicely, so after the next wet storm travel should greatly improve on a lot of glaciers.

[whitehonky]

Maurup... there have been reasonable turns on Paul and Columnar for some "closer to home". Obviously the road is in good drivable shape.

Alex... how be the bindings? Rig them up yet?