Calm before the storm….

Submitted by: Marty on: 31 December 2009 - 10:10am

This morning I ended up joining our local North Shore public avalanche forecasters, Cam and Pete for a little snoop up to Paul Ridge, a local haunt just 20 minutes from my front door in Squamish. These guys are part of an elite team that put together our regional avalanche bulletins here in BC. Although they have a wealth of sources from which to get their snowpack and weather info from, they head out in the hills for 2 days a week to get more intimate with the snowpack, and promote public awareness of avalanche hazards. Today was probably their last chance to observe the current conditions before the incoming system hits us Thursday.

Although it was greybird, and supposedly ‘all skied out’ we managed have a super morning. Not only did we find a great untracked deepsnow ski-line off of the ridge, but also several undisturbed sites in which to test snow (avalanche guys like, and need, virgin snow for testing). The forecast for Thursday/Friday suggests the long dry spell is over, and the threat of a new layer of cold juicy powder makes us avalanche folks want to get a really good handle on the current surface. For you locals, it doesn’t look great with the variable surface of facets and surface hoar . If we get 10-20 cm of snow, then things should be OK. 20-30 cm, and time to start reining it in. 40-50 cm, and things will get pretty real (spooky, that is…). Check out the local bulletins if you are planning to head out this coming weekend - www.avalanche.ca BTW, the new Onyx’s were the bomb. So far so good. Smooth click ins, pole activated mode changes and functional lifters – gotta love it. Even on the crappy icy ski out, I managed to open it up – something I would be hesitant to do with my old bindings without pulling up on the lever. Happy New Year!Cheers
Brian