Conditions at Rogers Pass

The latest Mountain Conditions Reports:

I returned yesterday from 10 days at Rogers Pass.

At the start of the trip we had excellent skiing (except on steep

SE-SW and due S aspects up to 2300m which had thin sun crusts) and

good stability. Early last week strong winds from N blew around 10-15

cm of storm snow creating hard and fairly reactive but small and thin

slabs on S aspects. The winds pretty much ruined the alpine snow but

sheltered treeline and below zones still produced excellent ski

quality.

We skied up to 48 degree alpine features taking care towards the end

of the week with the lee windslabs. Of note, steep N aspects we skied

(>40 deg) had thin and facetted snowpacks. We had fast sloughing in

the 10-15cm storm snow from the week on top of these surfaces.

Yesterday things changed dramatically with 30cm+ storm snow falling on

the 10cm storm snow from the previous week and moderate winds from the

South. I broke heavy trail up to 2100m on Teddy Bear Trees and enjoyed

excellent ski quality, even on the steep sun crusted aspects, albeit

with fast and hard sloughing. Steep exposed areas (e.g. Grizzly Bowl

direct lines) appeared to have had a natural cycle -- very soft slab

over the facets and sun crusts.

Tom

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Tom Wolfe

Mountain Guide ACMG/IFMGA

Canmore, AB