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Wasnt the ground based control kind of controlled by the availability of an army base in Chilliwack with howitzers and gunners eager for practice? Once they shut the base - no more guns for the Coq.

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Originally posted by BillyGoat

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Wasnt the ground based control kind of controlled by the availability of an army base in Chilliwack with howitzers and gunners eager for practice? Once they shut the base - no more guns for the Coq.

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I was wondering that myself. So it sounds like the ground-based program that was originally employed in the Coq has gone the way of the Sea-king; only Sea-kings are still in use (Maybe use Sea-kings to drop the charges, or just drop the Sea-king? Oh wait they do that anyway).

I don't recall there ever being a closure on the Coq this long in it's 22 year history; at least for this reason.
Looks like I'll be going to Kamloops tomorrow via the canyon.

This was on the Drive BC website:

Estimated time of opening 4 pm Fri Feb 15. Confidence level Moderate. Next update at 4 pm Thur Feb 14. Updated on Wed Feb 13 at 2:39 pm. (ID# -8905)

Confidence level: Moderate! Sounds like an avalanche warning.

this is longest closure in the history of the Coquihalla..

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Backcountry Avalanche advisory
February 14, 2008

Alpine: Considerable

Treeline: Moderate

Below Treeline: Low

Travel Advisory: A series of storms have swept through our region depositing approximately 66cm of snow during the past week. Winds accompanying the bulk of the snowfall since Feb 7th have been strong. The freezing level on Saturday rose to 1700m and some areas experienced periods of freezing rain mist. Wind exposed slopes will be scoured, while you can expect to find some soft windslabs in lee terrain and around terrain features on more North facing aspects. Cornices have grown and are fragile so give them a wide berth from both above and below. Keep in mind that a slab avalanche triggered within the storm snow has the potential to step down to deeper instabilities in the snowpack.

Avalanche Activity: Explosive and ski testing yesterday morning was producing mostly size 1.0 to 1.5 soft slabs with crowns from 10 to 30cm in depth, stepping down deeper to earlier storm snow layers in some isolated areas. Easy propagation was evident around some cross-loaded terrain features. Cornices were observed to be very reactive with some large cornice falls triggered with small bombs, as well as with the weight of sightseers. The most recent activity on the Dec 04 Crust and facet layer was on January 21st and was initiated by a large cornice fall.

Snowpack: The strong winds have created a wide variety of conditions in the alpine and treeline terrain. You will find pockets of soft windslab, stiffer IF resistance windslab in cross-loaded terrain features, and areas of less wind affected unconsolidated snow in sheltered terrain. Below the new snow layers are several layers of buried windslab, as well as old hard wind-hammered surfaces. You may also feel a weak ice lens that developed with the freezing mist on Saturday. At treeline and below treeline elevations several surface hoar and facet layers are now buried anywhere from 40-80cm in depth. Now that these layers have received a critical load, there have been reports of whumphing and cracking on some treeline slopes, as well as isolated skier triggered avalanche activity on the most recent surface hoar layer. The Dec 4th crust and facet layer lies dormant for now, buried deeply within our snowpack in most areas.

Weather: Mainly cloudy skies with a chance of flurries for today, with increasing cloud cover overnight on the approach of a weak system. Flurries tomorrow will give way to a building ridge of high pressure that will bring a return to sunny skies over the weekend and gradually rising freezing levels.

Travel with a partner and be equipped and prepared for self-rescue. Watch out for winch-cats or snowmobile traffic if you re-enter the area after operating hours

Whistler Mountain Snow Safety

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