Northern BC 2013/2014 Stoke, Conditions

[swissiphic]

Dunno who's following the nbc stoke thread...but dudes, where's the stoke??? Is everybody golfing already or something?

[garyfromterrace]

Stewart update: Fourish days of storm have hammered the town and mountains dumping a prodigious amount of new snow on the area.
Probed between 60-80cms of hst at treeline up surprise creek. Some cracking and shearing at the hst/crust interface noted while ski cutting pillows and micro rolls. Hasty look at storm snow structure showed a thin lower density layer on the crust with a denser slab atop it, basted with nice soft fluffy 24hr new snow. Ski pen was mostly "shin to win" with some sections of kneecap deep with continuous "chesties are the besties" and the occasional uncivilized faceshot in protected steeper glades in the trees. Lots of wind action at ridgetop and into open areas at and just below treeline from the west.
Flat light prevented good avy obs in surprise creek but did notice what seemed to be a good size 2 windslab in lee of today's westerly winds in a low alpine steeper bowl.
There was quite a bit of action in Bear Pass. In addition to a decent natural avy cycle on the west side of Bear Glacier, the long planar northeast slope looker's right of Bear Glacier ripped biggly. By far the largest avy I've seen in this path since beginning work for LFH back in 2000. Been watching it all season and noted frequent wind scouring and shallow snowpack up in the start zone area and wondering about enhanced faceting or depth hoaring up there. Based on depth of crown, guessing failed on a pwl deeper in the snowpack or perhaps basal facets? Impressive deposit depth and dimensions. I'm gonna call it a large size 3.5....wonder what the pros will peg it at?
Evening edit: further obs of numerous lee windslabs to size 3 east of surprise creek and a few reports of large avalanches in the region suspected to have failed on basal facets.

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Dude! I read your posts man. That is unless they are in some font colour that does not compute with my phone. Can't read this post buddy. PS greetings from your homeland.

[Eastcoastdan]

Dunno who's following the nbc stoke thread...but dudes, where's the stoke??? Is everybody golfing already or something?

Ok I'll play. It was deep in the McGregors this weekend. Reports of +- 100cms from PK but their website cannot be trusted. 120 HST in the North Cariboos. No matter what the actual total, it is definitely still winter in the North Rockies & Cariboos!

Pictures from Pass lake road Sunday

[swissiphic]

A season of gifts that keep on giving. Heliskiing this morning around Meziadin Lake by Stewart. 20cms of fresh and pukin'...boot top friday the 13th freshies!

[Eastcoastdan]

First day of spring conditions around these parts did not go so great for us! Somehow this ended up causing zero damage or injuries so now its just a funny picture and story

[swissiphic]

[QUOTE=Eastcoastdan;5321972]First day of spring conditions around these parts did not go so great for us! Somehow this ended up causing zero damage or injuries so now its just a funny picture and story
/QUOTE]


Holy shit! What's the backstory????

And hey, awesome pics of the deep pow at the end of this year's edition of Miracle March...the sequel...last year was epic too in these parts.

[LHutz Esq]

First day of spring conditions around these parts did not go so great for us! Somehow this ended up causing zero damage or injuries so now its just a funny picture and story

What the?


How the?

That’s fuckin awesome.

[Angle Parking]

The dude in the pic (East Coast?) has an aura to him that appears to be asking the same questions Hutz is asking. WTF just happened. very funny

[BCMtnHound]

I can't believe there are no impact craters from the riders. WTF? Both superman'd off the cliff? Damn...

[Angle Parking]

Judging from buddy's total lack of boot penetration where he is standing, one is inclined to infer that it was more of a bounce or splat scenario than a crater one. Sleds caught the non compressed edges of a logging road or cat path or something of that persuasion while the riders were flung off into hard pack???

[LHutz Esq]

Real expensive game of giant lawn darts?


Sent from my iPad using TGR Forums

[Eastcoastdan]

haha this is great, hearing your theories is as good as the true story!

We were up on a ledge trying to find the weakness through cliffs down to the lake below. I find a ramp that goes, sweet. I look back at Sam (pictured) give him a big thumbs up and begin descending... I begin to see (the light was pretty flat that day) that it rolls over more than I had thought, not a big deal, I slow down a bit. As I get closer it looks like I might be going over a bit of a wind drift, no big deal just a foot or two I think so I go to slow down some more. Except that at this point I can no longer stop, I am beyond the point of no return... which is when I realize that this little roll is actually a 15 foot cliff to flat! I jump of my sled just in time to send it into the flat light abyss. Meanwhile Sam(pictured) is not far behind, having dropped in behind me after my stoked "Thumbs up man!" He tries stopping his sled but ultimately has to also bail and send his sled into the unkown (flat light and all).

Somehow both sleds were completely undamaged once we popped Sam's hood back into place. A scary moment that ended up being really funny once we were sure we could make it home without doubling out! (we were a group of 4 that day) Here is a shot from above.

[Eastcoastdan]

[QUOTE=swissiphic;5322149]

First day of spring conditions around these parts did not go so great for us! Somehow this ended up causing zero damage or injuries so now its just a funny picture and story
/QUOTE]


Holy shit! What's the backstory????

And hey, awesome pics of the deep pow at the end of this year's edition of Miracle March...the sequel...last year was epic too in these parts.

Thanks swiss. Brought the real camera out that day and it paid off. We have had one hell of a year, the best I have had in 6 years of living here hands down. Thursday was the first time out I've not ridden pow since November!

[swissiphic]

ECD; man, those pics, that story. You win!

[Eastcoastdan]

And this winter keeps on giving! Headed into Wates-Gibson hut (Tonquin Valley, Jasper) for 7 nights 8 days with snow in the forecast followed by what looks to be clearing weather later in the week.

[LeeLau]

Wow. Good work on not doing the thousands of tomahawks of destruction

[XXX-er]

Wow man you guys made like a sled Forrest eh ?

https://lasvegassun.com/features/fin...art-display-o/

these ^^ guys did it with cars

[swissiphic]

Report from Bear Pass/Mez Lake north area from about a week agoish? In addition to the recent deluge of widespread point release/loose snow surface wet slides noted in Bear Pass, deeper weak layers have become reactive north and immediately west of Meziadin Lake.

Report from the field indicated a remotely triggered large slab avalanche down 70-75cms on well preserved April 3 surface hoar. Avalanche triggered from ridgetop in alpine on what appeared to be north quadrant terrain...suspect NE.

Observed from roadside at Surprise Creek pullout just east of Bear Pass was a surprisingly large personally estimated size 3.5 deep slab avalanche that occurred naturally on a NE facing open glade well below treeline.

Elevation of start zone is 720+/- meters. Crown looked very deep from roadside with both some gouging down to ground and a secondary crown a bit lower looker's right on the slope.

Suspect the mid Dec or a Jan PWL as the failed weak layer. The avalanche crown was google earth measured at approx 250 meters wide.

The avalanche spilled into two separate confined tracks with the lowest elevation lobe reaching to valley bottom and travelling a bit of distance over very low angle/flat terrain. Total length of both lobes individual tracks/runouts was over 1 km respectively with a vertical drop of about 450 meters.

Personal ski touring program in the pass put on hold a week ago due to rising temps and remains on hold with the continuing phenomenon of the world crashing down.

Photos show crowns in red and two separate confined tracks in blue in first photo. Red arrow showing track/gully; runout zone of avy outlined in red in second photo.

[garyfromterrace]

Guido, maybe it's my colour blindness.... but I cannot read the font you're using. Please change.

[swissiphic]

Guido, maybe it's my colour blindness.... but I cannot read the font you're using. Please change.

hmmmmmm, looks normal white on blue on my end....how is it now? Actually no need to read the text, the pics tell the story.

[swissiphic]

Hey Gary, fyi; Mayoral elections for Stewart this fall. Any chance I could put a trailer on yer property so I have a local address so I can throw my toque in the ring?

[garyfromterrace]

Haha, sure dude. But only if you fix your fucking font.

[garyfromterrace]

COLOR=#f0f8ff][FONT=Helvetica]

So I get this when i quote your post. I don't get this when I quote someone elses (the colour and font shit).

Your font sucks on both my computer (basically illegible) and cell phone (moderately to highly irritating).

[swissiphic]

COLOR=#f0f8ff][FONT=Helvetica]

So I get this when i quote your post. I don't get this when I quote someone elses (the colour and font shit).

Calling tech support. I have no fucking clue what's going on with my font.... like, I know i'm a contrarian but this is fucking bullshit if the mayor of shames can't read my posts!

[swissiphic]

Gary, fuck, weather looks okay for tomorrow. Come to Stewart ASAP. Let's slay this beast! 4500 footer. I don't wanna have to do 'er solo.