2010 Avalanche Activity in Western Newfoundland

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Unlike the mountains of B.C., Alberta and the Gaspe area of Quebec, in Newfoundland we have NO avalanche bulletins which are published to let the backcountry users know about snow conditions. So if you see avalanches in your travels it would be useful to record their location (from a GPS receiver if possible), date if known, avalanche size and if people were buried. Send information to my email at knicol@swgc.mun.ca 

First entry for January 2010 comes from Andrew Stokes -Tablelands - Gros Morne Park

Jan 23, 2010

Keith,
 
I thought I would send along some avalanche info from the Trout River Bowl area. Me and a friend were up skiing near the bowl today (Sat. Jan. 23, 10) and have some important info for anyone making there way up that way in the next few days. The two major points i'd like to make are as follows:
 
1. All gullies near TRB are cross-loaded as a result of steady wind blowing from west to east along the valley.
 
2. There is a layer of surface hoar that developed over the last few clear nights that looks like it may be a problem.
 
As a result of this combination of factors, we found easily triggered soft-slab on the west side of all chutes/ couloirs/ gullies in the area. (area directly to the west of TRB). We triggered a large size 1 (estimation) soft-slab from the top of one chute.
Size: 10m wide, distance from crown to toe - 300-400m, 15cm deep crown fracture.
 
Although there is a hard, icy layer buried farther down it does not seem to be reacting. It appears that it is the buried surface hoar that is causing the problems.
 
I would recommend avoiding areas with any wind loading for the next few days at least. It is likely that the entire west aspect of TRB is loaded and ready to slide so I would not even chance skiing there until things settle down a bit.
 
Hope this is helpfull.
 
Cheers,
Andrew Stokes

More from Andrew from the Blow me down Mtns- Jan 24, 2010

Keith,

We were out in the Blomidons on Sunday (Jan 24) and found fairly similar conditions as in the Tablelands, considerably more snow though. We found that the buried surface hoar layer is still easily reacting with clean shears. It generally seems to be found around 20 - 25cm deep but deeper in loaded features. Although still relatively soft, the overlying layer is beginning to firm up. We decided to stick to low-angle, supported slopes while we wait for the bigger stuff to become a little safer. This mild weather might do the trick.

Cheers,

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This sent in my Mike McCarthy - Jan 25, 2010

Keith, I have about a dozen or so photos of big and small avalanches in the Lewis Hills so far this winter.Got one on video burying one of my fellow sledders. Also had another avy sweep another guy away on another occassion.Lucky. There have been many slabs and cornice breaks so far this year and what Andrew Stokes describes in his post is the same thing in the Lewis Hills. Massive,deep snow loads on the tops of the hills.Will send the photos later tonight. Mike.

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This note is sent by Jennifer Hoffman from Gros Morne National Park- Jan 26, 2010

Hi Jennifer;
Just a quick note....I noticed yesterday that there is a significant sign of avalanches in and around the Little Is Pond area.....a couple big ones have come down in the little stream to LIttle Island Pond and one to the south-a little closer to the gorge....

Craig P. Burden

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This note sent by Justin House-Jan 28, 2010--About the Lewis Hills-photo by Mike McCarthy

Keith -- Yes, lots of activity. The largest avalanche evidence I have ever seen has already occurred at what we call "Judge Ridge". I'd say the slide extended out from the base of the hill at least 400 feet, and the debris is about 400X400.

This note sent by Mike McCarthy of Feb 12, 2010 - The snow pack is still sliding on the Hills as you can see here. A layer of hard pack underneath

Another note from Andrew Stokes- March 11, 2010 - Tablelands area

Keith,
 
Its been a while since my last entry and I think its time to send along some info gathered over the last two weeks. I spent March 5th and 6th skiing Winterhouse Brook Gorge (near Trout River Bowl) and have seen an increase in the amount of people venturing into the area with the recent sunny weather. Although the snow has not been the greatest for skiing (hard, icy, boilerplate, cement, etc.) the snowpack seems to be extremely stable. As the sun warms the surface, I expect to see some excellent corn-snow conditions, at least on days with mild temps.
This fact brings me to my main point. Many very large cornices have formed over the season and are ready to collapse onto slopes below. I would advise anyone travelling in these areas be extremally cautious when underneath these cornices, even if well below on gentler slopes! I have seen at least 3 large cornices "bus size" that have collapsed into Winterhouse Gorge and tumbled to the brook in the center of the gorge (about 400-500m). As these cornices begin to drop it should releive much of the danger in those areas affected, untill then I would advise extreme caution when underneath (remember: clouds may obscure the top of a pitch, hiding cornices from view, but they are still up there!!!) 
One last note. There looks to be a little snow in the forcast which will probably end up creating wind loaded pockets on the lee of features. I'm not expecting this snow to bond well to the icy layer that is currently out there so would advise people to be carefull when they find any powder. With the amount of snow in the forcast I would be more worried of a small slab taking me for an icy, potentially rocky ride then getting buried.
 
Cheers,
Andrew Stokes
 

Another note from Craig Burden- March 16, 2010 -Gros Morne Park

Hi Keith; I have been meaning to email you....couple great slides to report to you....actually saw one happen...saw the snowmobile trigger it and it turned into a small class II for sure and the snowmobile successfully outran the thing!  Amazing actually...something you'd see on TV.  Here are the coordinates of where it was:  21U 455504  5505550  at about 629 meters  NAD 83We have had about 3-4 feet of new snow in the past week up there and this is what happened.....it has blown and packed hard and slid on the crust below.....There is another one in the Big Level area that is probably one of the biggest I've seen.....it measures about 300M wide and it actually came downthe slope and began to run up another slope for a bit.   21U  444364  5502477   NAD 83    Sorry no pics!

 Craig P. Burden

Another update from Andrew Stokes- March 16, 2010 - Tablelands area of Gros Morne National Park

Keith,

I was back in Winterhouse Gorge last friday and found some scary stuff. There had been a massive amount of wind loading on the east aspect due to strong westerly winds. In some places there was up to a meter of new unconsolidated snow compared to one week prior. Although the new snow provided deep turns on the lower angle pitches, it was highly reactive on the steeper pitches (greater than about 32 degs). We cut off one small cornice into a chute that resulted in a section of slope about the size of a small soccer field avalanching. Once again no pics due to poor vis./light. At the time the slab seemed to be very soft, in fact the avalanche debris provided knee deep, soft powder for skiing. I would imagine the slabs will have stiffened considerably since and therefore would estimate the danger to be higher now, except for what has already slid. The important thing to note here is that there is a large mass of new snow sitting on top of an extremelly hard, icy sun crust. The new snow does not seem to be bonding to that layer at all as of last weekend. I'm back out next weekend and will be sure to send along an update as to what is going on out there.
 
Safe travels
Andrew Stokes

Mike McCarthy's latest images and observations- March 16, 2010 - Lewis Hills

We were in the Lewis Hills on Sat March 13 and triggered numerous avalanches on small slopes. We are definitely staying off the larger slopes. We saw many places were it looked like the snow slid naturally a few days before. Here are some pics of avalanches in motion.

This note is from John Smallwood from the N Peninsula - Thursday , March 18

HI Keith:

I don't have gps marks but easy to find the location of the largest one on bluey mountain the upper level on the north eastern end just above the face where jamie patey was killed (look at the contour lines right past the summit on the upper level)...have a badly lit pic of a small one across the road below that but further in the road at the inner end of bluey. we were more worried about finding a way around then taking pics of it lol...have a 20 second video panning the length the larger one though, its uploaded to my facebook...expecting a large one below that soon had more snow today on top of the already unstable slope where it always slides(hoping it came down actually)...probably one of the most dangerous places on the island , they have a logging road going right across the avalanch paths leads everyone right to it/under it...the reason i posted it to facebook was because a lot of kids were going in there riding..in fact one kid that saw the slide vid i posted of up above  said they had been there the day before playing up there...attaching the bad quality pic of the one across the road...this is actually further in than the worst places about 500 meters back out the road which havent come down yet....I also tryed to attach the video file but it was to big as is so i just cliped a still shot from it...if you want to see its full size ,or at least what i could see of it from that vantage point because it appeared to be even longer, you could check out the backcountry hillbillies facebook page and watch it or i could try reducing the video quality to mpg and send it.
I have seen quite a few this year about same as last year.appears to be blown snow buildups on the leward slopes because everything else is solid as a rock up there..the front of bluey you can drive straight up on a bravo for gods sake its so firm..its the side where it all blows because of that where its all hanging up....these slides were down on sunday but not down on saturday i talked to people that traveled threw there.. i was staying in on the mountains behind them for 4 days prior to that. they wernt down when i went in I saw them coming out so that should roughly date them for you.

John Smallwood

A note from Peter Yates about the Bowl at Trout River in the Tablelands in Gros Morne Park- April 2, 2010

Hi Keith,

Here are a couple shots of  recent avalanche activity up in the Trout River bowl. The shots were taken on April 2nd/2010. It looked to be fairly recent activity. It is certainly the most I've seen down in what appears to be one slide in that area.

Cheers,

Peter

A note from Craig Burden about cornices in Gros Morne Park- April 7, 2010

Keith : Lots of activity here now. See typical photo below.

Cheers,Craig