A Mountain Conditions Report for the Lizard Range:
A couple of friends and I spent a chilly day skiing some runs in the western Lizard Range today.
The most significant thing about conditions right now is the push of arctic air blowing in with moderate easterly winds. A temperature of -17 was recorded at 2000m.
There is good coverage in most places, with snow depth about 120cm -140cm in sheltered areas at treeline elevations (1800-2000m). Because of the winds, snow conditions were highly variable depending on aspect and terrain features. Most open areas, even well below treeline, were quite wind affected. But in lee areas in the trees the skiing quality was excellent, with calf-deep low density powder over a relatively supportive mid-pack.
There is currently lots of wind transport occurring because of the significant amount of low density storm snow that has fallen over the past few days. Hard and soft wind slabs are forming in lee-loaded and cross-loaded areas. Today these wind slabs were not reactive to skiers and no natural avalanche activity was observed but this will likely change if the winds continue. There was evidence of a small avalanche cycle to size 2 that occurred during the last storm 2-3 days ago but no fracture lines were observed because the start zones have since re-loaded.
Despite the cold and wind, there is still some great skiing to be had. Overall I was pleasantly surprised with the conditions for November.
Happy Turns,
Jeff Volp
Ski Guide
Kimberley, BC
