White pass Fraser Lake
Quick reportvince.vandelft14 · Dec 18, 2023 · Vancouver Island
Quick report
- Weather
- stormy
- Ride Type
- mellowSlopes, openTrees, steepSlopes
- Stayed Away
- alpineSlopes, convexSlopes
- Riding Quality
- amazing
- Snow Conditions
- deepPowder
- Avalanche Conditions
- avalancheConditionSnow
Went touring up to to the south facing slopes, just near the east side of Fraser lake. Stuck close to the small trees and toured our way up through super deep blower pow, digging our snow profile about halfway up to tree line. Snow depth was 160cm, soft snow from surface slowly getting more compacted until a facet layer about a foot from the ground which was hardpack. Snowsection cracked at 120cm with impact test from the elbow, and then failed and slid completely with impact test from shoulder at both 120cm, and the lower facet layer. The profile location was a little sheltered as well, but still showed signs of storm slab. Touring up toward tree line showed greater crusting of storm slab. There was also a heavy wind blowing through at the time. All worth it though, the ride down felt safe, no whumfing was heard, you could just surf and eat facefulls of pow the whole way down. Never saw or thought twice about rocks.
Snowpack
- Depth
- 160
- Obs Type
- point
- Site Aspect
- S
- Test Fracture
- unevenBreak
- Site Elevation
- 1300
- Ski Penetration
- 40
- Test Initiation
- easy
- Foot Penetration
- 80
- Sled Penetration
- 0
- Test Failure Depth
- 120
- Site Elevation Band
- alp, tln
- Surface Conditions
- newSnow
- Test Failure Layer Crystal Types
- facets, stormSnow, surfaceHoar
Failure on storm snow at 120cm and at facet layer at 35cm