Black Tusk Area
SnowpackJustin Partridge · Jan 1, 2023 · Garibaldi
Quick report
- Weather
- warm
- Ride Type
- mellowSlopes, sunnySlopes, openTrees
- Stayed Away
- convexSlopes, alpineSlopes, steepSlopes
- Riding Quality
- good
- Snow Conditions
- powder, heavy
- Avalanche Conditions
- avalancheConditionSnow
This area has been absent MINs for too long! We skied a few runs on the South facing, open trees below the Tusk (Fatmap lists a route called "East Knob" in the area). We had great snow until about 1 pm before it got heavy enough to head to areas with more shade. In one picture attached, there appears to be a sizeable cornice fall on the N aspect of Panorama ridge. We also found large amounts of surface hoar up to 1950 meters (more + larger feathers as you descend to the meadow) that didn't evaporate during the day. For those wondering, the lake still looks suspect to cross with what looked like wet patches out near Sentinel Bay but we did see a skin track leaving from Garibaldi lake campsite headed toward Sphinx bay- we aren't sure how far they made it as Panorama ridge was blocking the way
Weather
- Avg Temp
- -5
- Min Temp
- -10
- Wind Speed
- windSpeedCalm
- Blowing Snow
- none
- Sky Condition
- clear
- Storm Start Date
- 2022-12-30
- Storm Snow Amount
- 30
- Temperature Trend
- rising
- Precipitation Type
- none
Snowpack
- Depth
- 170
- Obs Type
- point
- Site Aspect
- E
- Test Fracture
- unevenBreak
- Site Elevation
- 1735
- Ski Penetration
- 20
- Test Initiation
- hard
- Foot Penetration
- 66
- Test Failure Depth
- 122
- Site Elevation Band
- tln
- Surface Conditions
- newSnow, surfaceHoar
- Test Failure Layer Crystal Types
- crust
We dug a pit on an ENE aspect at 1750m at about 1pm - we found a rain crust 48cm below the surface that was 3cm thick with 20cm of knife-to-pencil snow below. On the small 35-degree roll where we dug, we got the new snow from last week (F to 4F snow) to move at 4 from the shoulder. The release was resistant and uneven. We probed at 1950 meters on a south aspect and found 35cm of heavy snow above a crust with a snowpack depth of 120cm. We also noticed some pinwheeling and snow falling from trees later.