2019.2.11 Alpine Practice : Snow travel in extreme cold (Arctic Outflow), cont'd
Good cold! -22°C at the parking. And the Matrix' engine temperature is at it's minimum.
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Topping Mt. Rohr, at -20°C. "I feel warm and dry. The warmest part of my body is feet!"
2019.2.11 Alpine Practice : Snow travel in extreme cold (Arctic Outflow), cont'd
Exactly one year ago on this day, it was snowing in Vancouver too. They didn't let me stay there overnight due to the policy, so I was leaving Vera awaiting surgery in VGH trauma unit and soon got lost in heavy snow on empty dark city streets, trying to get back to our car. Coincidence?
2019.2.11 Alpine Practice : Snow travel in extreme cold (Arctic Outflow), cont'd
The mountain was all ours - entire day we saw no people and even didn't have broken trail, that's ~5 km of fresh unsupportive snow. It took us twice time as last time we visitied this place, and back then we carried snowcamping stuff: tent, sleeping bags, stove, food and fuel. Although air was same cold -20°C in both trips, Vera was too cold last time (frostbite), and I was too warm this time (overheat).
2019.2.11 Alpine Practice : Snow travel in extreme cold (Arctic Outflow), cont'd
这是一个意外。
经常跟着博士爬山，没有意外，那就真的意外了。
Arctic Cold一直是我们期待的，它终于来到时，面临的选择也是多样的。在Joffre Lake #1 的雪地露营，我们测试了睡袋+帐篷+电子设备等在低温下的性能，但是我们没有测试我们的衣服等在低温下长时间徒步时的效果，是冷还是热？哪些需要改进的，还存在哪些问题？密切关注着天气，9号上班，博士的信息到：留着10-12号，Arctic cold机会不容错过，让我们好好利用它！（which I totally agree）10号，“Keith’s Hut“！ 太好啦，这是我的最爱啊，马上就开始计划着这次去的话，带些什么礼物给小木屋。路上还和博士说起两年前8人一行一路趣事的情景，回忆不禁鲜活起来。星期天的上午，没有traffic，经过Squamish，说起Lulu的大部队正在爬山呢，show一下照片，博士赞大家都那么厉害，有passion！（当然啦，没有passion，这么冷的天，谁会出来？）
一路聊着，一路有机会的时候（比如说Visitor Center）就查看天气，都是太阳太阳，间或加点云；风速低；气温很低，都在-20°C以下。雪崩指数低低低。可是，进了Squamish，就不见了蓝天，慢慢地整个都是灰的，弄得我们对着预报不敢相信。也许Squamish就是个特别的区域吧？我安慰着博士，其实心里也没什么底气，因为我说了也不算啊。开到了Pemberton（这里的麦当劳的咖啡很好喝），叮叮的信息说Burnaby在下雪。啊？！我们又接着开，远处的山正在whiteout，渐渐地，TH到了，天空飘起了雪。“不行，不能玩这样的游戏，万一雪大了，就开不出来了。” 好嘛，掉头，又回到了Pemberton。也怪了，一抬头，云淡起来，天渐渐地蓝起来。有戏！Inreach也来 check一下，确实天气是好的！好，再回头，停在了TH。到Hut两三个小时，此刻刚过中午，我们有大把的时间“酝酿”，先在车里休息。迷糊间，有人下山回来了，旁边的车有了动静，一看，都是滑雪的。我继续napping，勤于思考的博士的worry就来了：你看，这里停了这么多车，Hut里可能会人多，那睡觉多吵啊，那多没趣啊。“这些人今天可能都会下山的”， 我的解释没什么说服力。怎么办？问呗！这可是我的长项。Excuse me，do you know how many ppl will stay in the hut tonight？ -- Oh，we saw 2 teams coming up，at least 6. “6个人“，博士显然对这个“6”不满意。好，又一队人下来了，3名滑雪女将，excuse me，我再问。-- 4. 不管怎么说，想要满足博士的solitude是impossible！他倒是振振有词：既然我可以选择，为什么不？（瞧这道理讲的，真被他打败了）
Two of us attempted Unnecessary South, our traditional annual winter snowshoe destination, but first, my new hand-held GPS was acting weird: showed North where it was South, so we lost one hour trying to find the root cause (found!) and then encountered super soft deep un-supporting snow on St. Marks. We both were not excited. At the back of my mind was, how come so much fresh powder didn't elevate avalanche danger. Was it intuition or what, but we dropped our plan, strangely without too much regret. On the way back, Vera discovered she was missing her trusty and tested glacier goggles, which we decided not to go back to look for, only that shortly after were being given back by a hiker who found them and passed by us.
Avalanche Canada gave us forecast for alpine as "Moderate" (="Natural avalanches unlikely"). However as usual, we were carryinng all avalanche and rescue gear (beacons, shovels, probe, Inreach, emergency tarp, ice axes, helmets, radios, short rope and food - holy cow - that't heavy!). Still, at the end of the day we were glad we never went on snow-loaded slopes of Unnecessary: same morning an avalanche hit two hikers on Runner, one still missing.
Speaking about Avalanche Canada forecasts - not first time this season their "Moderate" assessment was grossly underestimated "High" - two (not one!) natural avalanches registered on Joffre one week ago when we climbed Mt. Rohr: skiers got caught from above, one lost ski another got pole broken. Probably the agency is not accustomed to unusual super-dry soft unstable local snow. Who knows. I used to trust their forecasts, but a series of wrong estimates says about quality. Very concerning.
In a rare move, Avalanche Canada revised their forecast, but only today, and only after 1 p.m..
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Photo: regarldless of the official avalanche danger forecast, which was posted as "Low" (but actually was at least "Considerable) we crossed this slope as per avalanche terrain protocol - one by one.
Hi Doctor Pan and Vera, it is been a while that there is no new posting. Hope you both are well. I have learned a lot from your posting, thank you very much for sharing your knowledge, experience, lesson and concern. Looking forward your new posting.
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