Opabin Plateau & Elizabeth Parker
Snowpacklindslangs · Dec 25, 2022 · Lake Louise
Quick report
- Weather
- sunny
- Ride Type
- denseTrees
- Stayed Away
- convexSlopes, alpineSlopes, steepSlopes
- Avalanche Conditions
- avalancheConditionSlab
Spent two night at Elizabeth Parker over Christmas. We went with expectations only for a walk about, and that's what we stuck to. Smaller microterrain features had recent natural movement with the newly bonded storm slab cracking off on steeper pitches. These slabs were sliding on the thin crust layer. Trail breaking was a bit heinous, with the occasional punch through the thin, not very supportive crust and then wallowing in facets. We did feel some settlements throughout our walk. Heard numerous large settlements and rumbles towards the end of our day in the distance. A few spots within the valley we noticed recent avalanche activity, weather it was wind slab or the fresh storm snow. We decided to go back the way we came (skin track in the forest) rather than exit out terrain that was more exposed with overhead hazard and a very untrustworthy snowpack. Not a lot of snow in this valley right now. On the walk in valley bottom looked to have 30-50cm. On the plateau there was HS of around 100-110 cm.
Snowpack
- Obs Type
- summary
- Site Elevation
- 2200
- Ski Penetration
- 25
- Foot Penetration
- 0
- Site Elevation Band
- tln, btl
- Surface Conditions
- newSnow
- Whumpfing Observed
- 1
Snowpack here was essentially 20-25cm of fresh storm snow that had started to slab up overlaying a thin crust with a column of large facets underneath