Western Canada/Dec 28th

[jmckay]

Just North of Lake Louise

 

 

Dave, Jeff, Andy and I skied up to the toe of the Little Crowfoot (Ferris) Glacier today. This is the glacier to the south of Bow Hut, with Crowfoot Mountain to the east and "Vulture" Peak to the west.

 

Wx: No precipitation, max -9, min -10, high thin overcast with valley fog and fog on the Wapta icefield, calm all day, 2 cm new snow overnight and 10-15 cm storm snow from the previous several days.

 

No avalanche activity noted.

 

Below treeline all the way through the canyon there isn't enough snow to avalanche. Just below treeline this changes and there is about 50-75 cm of snow, the mid-pack is weak and you punch through it about 50% of the time both up and down, into the weak facets beneath. The mid-pack slab here doesn't seem to have a lot of tension in it and there were no whumpfs.

 

Once in the moraines, the wind got to the snowpack before the most recent storm leaving a hard layer that supports a skier. About 10 cm of soft storm snow lies on top of that. On the bottom are the ubiquitous facets. This combination resulted in loud whumpfs all the way through the moraines, every 10 or 20 meters.

 

So we stayed on terrain less than 30 degrees and away from any large slopes above. Our late start necessitated a descent from the toe of the glacier rather than going onto the glacier and summitting Little Crowfoot peak. I would have been leery of going straight up the steep toe of the glacier, it's less steep at the easternmost edge of it.

 

Excellent ski quality to treeline, with the fluff on top of the hard surface. Once in the trees it wasn't very good, we broke through the mid-pack into the weak snow near the ground. Lots of small rocks to dodge on the way out.

 

I rated the Danger as Considerable in the alpine, Moderate at treeline, Low below treeline.

 

Mark Klassen

Mountain Guide

mark@alpinism.com

www.alpinism.com

 

_______________________________________________

These observations and opinions are those of the person who submitted them. The ACMG and its members take no responsibility for errors, omissions, or lapses in continuity. Conditions differ greatly over time and space due to the variable nature of mountain weather and terrain. Application of this information provides no guarantee of increased safety. Do not use the Mountain Conditions Report as the sole factor in planning trips or making decisions in the field.

Please check out http://acmg.ca/mcr for more information.

Edited December 29, 2005 by jmckay

[jmckay]

12/27: Junkyards on a balmy day: Surprisingly dry and most everything is in, except the curtain right below the little tree.

 

12/28: Professors: In spite of morning temps of -4C the first and second tier were spewing water. We walked around it. All other pitches offered dry lines (see Patrick’s report yesterday) with the last pitch being a bit more on the wet side again.

 

12/28: Coire Dubh: Some visiting European guides reported good and very dry conditions. They found the initial ice pitches very brittle and they didn’t use crampons from the first rock pitch (dihedral) on.

 

Cheers,

Jorg Wilz

Mountain Guide

www.ontopmountaineering.com

Edited December 29, 2005 by jmckay

[jmckay]

Dec 28 - attempted the loop today; turned back at the base of the "crux" slope from the Haig glacier up to the Robertson / Sir Douglas col. Was hoping to see that slope blown mostly clean by yesterday's strong to extreme winds, unfortunately it is still 95% snow covered. As far as I dared investigate at the bottom I found 50+ cm of soft new snow, hard to say how much snow is on the upper slope.

 

Average HS (height of snow) on the upper French is 120 - 150 cm, on the Haig 200cm.

 

No new avalanche activity noted, most fractures lines from the last few days have reloaded.

 

Fair quality skiing on the French.

 

Happy New Year

 

Rob Orvig

IFMGA Mountain Guide

Edited December 29, 2005 by jmckay

[jmckay]

Hello,

Dec.27 Climbed Rogan's Gulley. The ice is dry and in good shape. There is very little snow in the gulley so there is lots of easy ice to climb. There is also little snow above the route to worry about.

 

Dec.28 Climbed The Urs Hole. It is also in good shape but has a lot more snow above it to think about. Both finishes are in.

 

Jesse de Montigny

Assistant Rock Guide

Assistant Ski Guide

 

 

 

Joe

] I personally would be writing off URS for the rest of the season, but that is me

Edited December 29, 2005 by jmckay

[jmckay]

I was up at Rogers Pass after an extended sabbatical due to a cold – timing was good as my recovery seems to be corresponding with a return to good ski quality and reasonable stability.

 

Basically there is a variable thickness/hardness rain crust that carries skiers (at least on my Mega Bangs 92mm. underfoot) with 20-25 cms. of loose new snow overlying it after last nights snow fall – the crust tapers off at around 8,000ft.(give or take a bit) – it is weakest just below treeline and fairly strong in the alpine. This is just enough snow to make for good skiing today though it is a little tricky just above the mousetrap.

 

Not tons of natural activity in the valley (some deposits in the mousetrap from the creek sidewalls) and things seem pretty tightened up with the cold weather – though the crust is fairly strong I am guessing that if you did something stupid it would still propagate through it into the deeper weakness – but basically appears to be bridging the lower weakness for now.

 

It settled in again this evening as I left and was snowing by the time night fell – 10-15 more would be quite nice.

 

Safe holidays and have a merry New Year,

 

Scott Davis

[jmckay]

After spending the past week custodianing at the Wheeler Hut I'm in

Revelstoke now, watching Rohan and the Van Bibby children and drying out

for the day while Deb and Kim shred the Dome....

 

To add to Scott's post, I was up and over Lookout Notch yesterday and

noted a strong rain crust, 7 cm thick, beneath 23 cm of storm snow at 2100

m, NE asp. This crust was still noted at the col (2250?) and probably goes

substantially higher. Below the crust is moist snow from the rain we had

over the weekend. As Scott mentioned, it holds well down to about

treeline, and in open areas (i.e. the avalanche path down to the

Mousetrap) to about 1650 m. Below the crust there are still fast shears in

the moderate range on the storm interface (Dec 19 facets) and Nov 25

facets. Air temp was -7 C at 2100 m, 13:00, so the crust might get

stronger in the next day or two. More snow is in the forecast in small-mod

quantities with freezing levels below 1200 m.

 

Widespread avalanches sz 1-3 noted on all aspects from the weekend rain

storm.

 

Regards,

Tom Wolfe

[jmckay]

We thrashed our way up and down to treeline on Mt. Field on Thursday Dec.

29. Absolutely terrible travelling with collapsing crust over facets,

impenetrable alder in the slidepath and a mess of downed timber and

thickets in the trees. The travel got better in the open near treeline but

was very scary with continuous whoomphing as a buried SH layer collapsed

underfoot . In a pit on a north facing slope where there was continuous

fog while the SH formed during the middle of November, the collapsing layer

(Nov 26) is down about 60 cm in a 110 HS. It measures 15-20mm and is very

well preserved: CTE 5-10 sudden collapse and RB3 on a 25 degree slope. Also

observed was a thin twin SH layer about 35 down (Dec 19th) that would also

give clean shears but not until after the lower layer had failed. The

October crust was still present at the bottom of the pit but produced no

consistent results. This snowpack sounds much more similar to the interior.

It is the first pit where we have observed the Nov 26 SH the Rockies since

mid December as it has more or less facetted away on the east side of the

divide.

Brad White

UIAGM/ACMG Mountain Guide (See attached file: MtField SH 20051229.jpg)?_______________________________________________

These observations and opinions are those of the person who submitted them. The ACMG and its members take no responsibility for errors, omissions, or lapses in continuity. Conditions differ greatly over time and space due to the variable nature of mountain weather and terrain. Application of this information provides no guarantee of increased safety. Do not use the Mountain Conditions Report as the sole factor in planning trips or making decisions in the field.

Please check out http://acmg.ca/mcr for more information.

CANADIAN NATIONAL PARK WARDENS TO THE RESCUE

[jmckay]

Up the Illecillewaet, through Lookout Col and down the Asulkan. -7 air

temp. 15-25 cm on the Dec 26 crust. Pretty good skiing overall, with the

feel of crust on the skis at the bottom of the turns. Rained on and frozen

avalanche debris in the bottom of the bowl on the Asulkan side of the Col,

with just enough fresh snow to cover some of the smaller chunks. Some

cracking in the storm snow on the Dec 26 crust on the ascent, and I ski cut

a size 0.5 avalanche on the crust, about halfway down the first steep slope

out of Lookout Col . See profile attached for the science behind the

skiing. Profile on the north side, skied the south side.

 

The keg of beer on a sled being hauled into the Wheeler Hut, encountered

right at the last icy descent into the Asulkan parking lot, was definitely

the biggest hazard of the day. Party on!

 

Jordy Shepherd

[jmckay]

Kathy, Will and I spent Dec 29-31 wandering about the Wapta Icefield.

 

Over the trip winds were generally moderate from the west, with strong winds at ridgetops on Dec 30. Moderate snow transport at ridgetop most of the time. Max of -6 at Bow Lake Dec 29, minimum -15 at Olive/St Nick col Dec 29. -9.5 at Bow Hut the morning of Dec 31. Regular flurries left a few cm of new snow over the trip. Visibility varied from obscured to broken.

 

Approach to Bow Hut is as per my post for Little Crowfoot a few days ago. Up on the ice we saw about 2 m of snow at around 2700 m at the head of the Bow Glacier, with deeper snowpacks at higher elevations in sheltered areas. The light was never very good but it seemed that the icefield was quite smooth with few visible crevasses. Ski penetration was generally ankle deep, minimal wind effect in the most recent snowfalls although with probing it seemed there was a 40cm thick wind slab atop a thin weakness, beneath the 10-15cm soft surface snow layers. Cornices are large.

 

On the 30th poor visibility, loading winds, occasionally intense flurries, suspected large cornices and unknown crevasse difficulties created too many "ifs" for us to go from Balfour Hut over the Balfour High Col to Scott Duncan. I like to have good visibility or a Low to Moderate Danger rating (or, better yet, both) to consider committing to that place. We had neither so we climbed Olive on the way back to Bow that day.

 

Good skiing on the Bow Glacier on Dec 30 and 31. Lots of people though.

 

The only avalanche activity we saw was exiting on Dec 31. A large size 2 had run sometime in the previous 24 hours in the path beyond the end of Bow Lake, on the south flank of Mt Jimmy Simpson. It came out of steep, unskiable cliffs and gullies to the right of the waterfalls. It was a slab, about 40cm thick, initiating on a steep slope in the lee of a ridge at treeline and cleaning out the cliffs below. It ran about 2/3 of the fan in the runout zone.

 

I'm also pretty sure I heard a sizeable avalanche off Olive during the wind event of Dec 30, but couldn't see it in poor visibility.

 

I rated the Danger as Considerable in the alpine and treeline and Low below treeline, throughout the trip.

 

Mark Klassen

Mountain Guide

mark@alpinism.com

www.alpinism.com

 

_______________________________________________

These observations and opinions are those of the person who submitted them. The ACMG and its members take no responsibility for errors, omissions, or lapses in continuity. Conditions differ greatly over time and space due to the variable nature of mountain weather and terrain. Application of this information provides no guarantee of increased safety. Do not use the Mountain Conditions Report as the sole factor in planning trips or making decisions in the field.

Please check out http://acmg.ca/mcr for more information.

 

[jmckay]

Trashed to the 1500 m observation site on the E side of Hudson Bay Mountain today.Very low snow cover in the trees. 90 cm at 1500 m. Little wind effect in the alpine. No natural avalanches observed, but several whumpfs occurred. A profile at 1500 m in an E aspect showed 40 cm of recent snow above several strongly facetted crusts. There were consistent collapses on a facetted layer below a crust 50 cm down. There is well preserved surface hoar 45 cm down, but no shears occurred on it. The skiing quality was good where there was enough snow in the main path, which was infrequent.

--

Christoph Dietzfelbinger

Mountain Guide, Bear Mountaineering and Burnie Glacier Chalet

Box 4222

Smithers, B.C. V0J 2N0 Canada

tel. 250-847-3351 fax: 250-847-2854

info@bearmountaineering.ca www.bearmountaineering.ca

_______________________________________________

These observations and opinions are those of the person who submitted them. The ACMG and its members take no responsibility for errors, omissions, or lapses in continuity. Conditions differ greatly over time and space due to the variable nature of mountain weather and terrain. Application of this information provides no guarantee of increased safety. Do not use the Mountain Conditions Report as the sole factor in planning trips or making decisions in the field.

Please check out http://acmg.ca/mcr for more information.

[jmckay]

Spent the 31st /Jan 1st at Callaghan Country Lodge (about 25 km SW of Whistler) skiing in the tree line (4500- 5500'). At the 4500' (Lodge ) Wx station there was 210cm yesterday late afternoon. At the 5200' snow plot there was 3-4 meters of snow; there is 120 cm of snow over the Xmass crust (which is 5cm thick) and about a meter of wet snow below all this. The creeks at tree line are still open but starting to ice over. 1 natural size 1 avalanche on a Nw aspect slope at 5700', and start zones on similar aspects are reactive to ski cutting. The fractures are running only in the new snow. Ski penetration is 50cm and the skiing quality is excellent.

It feels a bit more like winter!

 

Dave Sarkany

 

Ski Guide

Callaghan Country Backcountry Lodge

[jmckay]

Metal dome area, storm snow was transported on ridges up to 125cm with foot pen up to 95cm. Sledders spent the day digging their noisy machines out of the snow and making jumps!

New snow has strong bonding (no naturals and no sled starts). Pit results: nw 1500m 38degree hs 205cm 126cm to wet grains. New snow consistent /r 1-2 1f, 25cm cte7 / 2 sp, 40cm cte7 +/2 sp, 55cm ctm14 /2 sp, 85cm cth28 /1sp.

Snow temps are west coast - 0cm -4.6 10cm -1.8 gradually rising to +.4 100cm.

Happy New snow year!

 

Richard Haywood

 

Jackie Mckay Metis /Mixed Blood from the Clan MacKay - First day ice climbing.

[jmckay]

Climbed in the Bow Falls area today. Strong westerly winds in the pm. I would guess it was howling on the Wapta. Overcast with only very light snowfall, -5 to -8c.

Generally poor conditions in the Bow Falls area. Snow conditions on all the approach aprons were wildly variable and often spooky. Lots of the bigger aprons I avoided as they were fat and the consequences were low but ugly. The ice was HARD(felt like -30c ice) and even with lethally sharp picks I was having to pound like a caveman to get a stick and then of course had to yank like a fool to get them out. Not very aesthetic.

 

It is possible to walk around the lake and up to the routes without skiis or snowshoes for now. The walking was better than the climbing.

 

Larry Stanier

Mountain Guide

[jmckay]

Skied the Lilly - Dome traverse today with fellow aspiring Ski Guides Lee

Johnston and Ian Kirschner. Moderate trailbreaking up to the col and

excellent fresh tracks down to the Asulkan. There is 30-50 cm of mainly

unconsolidated snow on top of the Dec 25 rain crust now. Where wind

affected (on our tour just below the col, both sides) there is a soft slab

reactive to skis with fast, easy shears on the Dec 25 crust. This was a

bit of a surprise since elsewhere we've noted that the new snow was

bonding well to the crust. We didn't examine the interface carefully but

there is probably some facetting responsible down there.

 

We kicked off a SSL sz 1.5-2.0 on the steep roll on the north side of the

col on the way down (40 cm deep, 50 m wide, ran about 100 m total) as the

leader cautiously entered the slope -- not exactly a ski cut, not exactly

a surprise either. A little lower (2350 m) there is little wind affect

down to the valley bottom.

 

Alp - Considerable

Treeline - Considerable

BTL - Moderate

 

FAntastic skiing in the Pass -- tonight calls for a heavy dump which will

mean a sharp increase in Avalanche Danger top to bottom.

 

Regards,

Tom Wolfe

Ass't Alpine Guide

[jmckay]

Happy New Year!

 

Skied up Loop Brook to the Lilly for a quaint bivy below Sapphire Col on Jan 02/06. Lots of alder bashing and open creek crossings (bring a life jacket and rubber dingy, maybe we should have Swiftwater Rescue incorporated into the ski guide program if global warming continues...) lower down below the Lilly moraine feature. Lilly glacier easy to bypass on climbers right with broken ground in the middle and climbers right. Climbed the steep pitch to Sapphire Col in the morning with a 10 -15 cm of new sitting on the Dec 25 crust. Slab had not set up until near the top of the climb near a steep convex feature, which pulled out a 0.5 soft slab (ski cut (?) down 10cm, 15m wide and ran 20-30m), not really of any consequence but sporty in some regards. Excellent ski quality (30-40cm of storm) down beside the Dome, however whiteout conditions provided exc ellent opportunities for touchy feely snowplowing techniques and roped skiing fun! Ski quality decreases and becomes industrial below treeline with 10-15 cm of dust on crust.

 

Also skied Lookout Notch to Asulkan on Jan 01. Approach to the Illisilly (practice slopes) looking very thin, with many rocks and moraine feature still poking out. Bowl below Lookout Notch has slid with last rain storm and was covered with a thin dusting providing "rodeo like" skiing conditions, avalanche path below is filled with many x-mas trees and hazards. Temps feeling very mild (-6.0 at 9:00pm on Jan 02 on Lilly below Sapphire Col) throughout stay at R.P.

 

Cheers,

 

Scott Grady

Assistant Ski Guide

 

CORRECTION

 

Sorry Gang,

 

Slots easy to get around on the Lilly on the other right, what I meant to say was the climbers LEFT.

 

Also, good skiing at WH20 (nelson) with 30ish in the last 3 days!

 

Cheers,

 

Scott Grady

Assistant Ski Guide

 

 

These observations and opinions are those of the person who submitted them. The ACMG and its members take no responsibility for errors, omissions, or lapses in continuity. Conditions differ greatly over time and space due to the variable nature of mountain weather and terrain. Application of this information provides no guarantee of increased safety. Do not use the Mountain Conditions Report as the sole factor in planning trips or making decisions in the field.

Please check out http://acmg.ca/mcr for more information.