We dug a couple pits in Fernie on the weekend. The more extensive of them, up the slope and across the valley from the new cabin (6300 ft ish). Here is what I found on Sat: The latest snow, about 3", was not bonding great to the rain crust below. There is a significant rain crust on all aspects, and its thick! like 2-3" in places. Hard to shovel through at times even. There is another layer about 18" down that we could get to fracture but it took some effort, but it would break clean. Below that, about 10", there was another layer that would slide but it took more effort and wasn't breaking as uniform. the temp gradient was pretty uniform through the snowpack in most pits as well.
Conditions are like spring riding but worse. it was hard and cold, you feel every bump under the top stuff. There was pockets of windblown up top but nothing deep. Sunday it rained down low and the snow up top was heavy, we got soaked, was an effort just to keep the goggles clean. Traction is amazing though! So good you can sit there and watch your buddy break his chain and explode his chaincase! LOL
Conditions are like spring riding but worse. it was hard and cold, you feel every bump under the top stuff. There was pockets of windblown up top but nothing deep. Sunday it rained down low and the snow up top was heavy, we got soaked, was an effort just to keep the goggles clean. Traction is amazing though! So good you can sit there and watch your buddy break his chain and explode his chaincase! LOL
