Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Copper Mountain - Banner Summit Area - 4.29.2009

It has been some time since my last posting in February. I was very busy ski guiding for Wallowa Alpine Huts during the month of February and Early March. Also during the middle of March I spent two full weeks touring the Wasatch and Uintas backcountry in Utah.
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Now to the "Snow News"!
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Copper Mountain was fabulous today. Depending on elevation and aspect there was between 4 to 6 inches of NEW soft snow in top of a velvety surface. Very deligthfull! Check the two videos of Brad included below. Can you see some soft pow bouncing around Brad's skis?
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Check the next two pictures of Copper West and South faces. The hill has adequate coverage considering the warm temps of last week and this year below average snowpack. The tracks on the West face belong to the run shown in the above two videos and in the topo map included on this posting as "run#1".
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The next topo map shows the runs we skied today.
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At the top of run#1 we digged a snow pit to check how the "spring" metamorphosis of the snowpack is proceeding.Below the new snow, there is a thick layer (0.5-0.6 meter) of well bonded melt-freeze crystals.

The January facet layer was still present below the half meter layer of "isothermal snow". The January 2+ mm facets crystals are showing rounding but I did not observe significant crystal bonding on this pit location. In other words, do NOT allow yourself to get surprised if you are hanging around steep slopes during warming periods capable of softening the top half meter of snow. This top layer of thermally softened snow will be sitting on a facet layer that has consistently come out of dormancy and become active during this winter.
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The new snow on the South and West aspects was "non-cohesive". But a light wind (with Moderate gusts) from the North formed soft slabs at North and East aspects. Once we reached the top of Copper I thought it was prudent not to jump on the North Chutes due to the presence of a soft slab in top of "old" spring snow.
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As the day progressed, we skinned over to Copper's Northeast side to ski "run#2" (see topo map). When I ski cut the the top of run#2, an avalanche released (SS-AS-D1.5-R3-N) on a steep 38-39 degree slope. The slope was not wind loaded, and the release was initiated ONLY on the steeper section of the slope.
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We proceeded to ski a "shallower" line on the same avy slope after measuring steepness and performing some additional ski cutting. The snow on this aspect was creamy and fun, but NOT as powdery as the west and south aspects. Today was partly cloudy with mild temps, thus the sun thermal effect was greatly arrested. And since it is late April it is likely that by Thursday or Friday the snow will be punished by the sun.
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Copper's East ridge is looking sweet. We did not have time to ski it. Tempting - I will have to come back SOON!

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The next video shows Brad skiing Copper's South face on our penultimate run (run#3).
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One final note. We drove past Mores Creek Summit today. The area has experienced significant snow melting during the last 2 weeks. Two weeks ago I skied powder in protected north aspects. And the snow coverage at 6000 feet level was looking great. Today I was saddened to see that the season is almost OVER. The snow coverage above 7000 feet appears adequate (???), but the snow access at the 6000 feet level is looking very grim.