Western Canada December

[jmckay]

Climbed the route today (Dec 21), and is in great shape, (as previously

reported by Mike and Rob) up until the last pitch.

 

Pitch 7: No change in the difficulty of climbing, but sounded hollow

through the thinner bottom end of the pitch. It is also detached from

the rock in places. We hooked gently and found good rock pro on either

side. A couple of days of solar radiation wont do this pitch any good.

 

Upper level winds were strong from the west.. Localized winds were

sporadic and variable! But gusting strong at times. Broken skies and

snowing very lightly on and off all day.

 

Aaron Beardmore

Mountain Guide

 

 

Aaron

www.transworldmountaineering.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]

Climbed the route yesterday with two guests. Good shape throughout with only a few sections of thin, brittle ice on the first pitch, full length screws everywhere else. Everything after that was wet and plastic. There is a fair amount of snow on the trees and we had the occasional "tree bomb" come down on us. Well packed trail into base of route and it looked like quite a few people were using the climbers right hand gully to descend - we rapped the route. Stout and Hi Test looked good but I could not see a trail going up to them from the top pitch of Guinness. Looked like a lot of work to get there.

 

Cheers

 

Mike Stuart

ACMG Assistant Alpine Guide

E: m_stuart@telus.net

[jmckay]

I spent Dec.22-23 skiing the Gorge road area in the Monashees west of Revelstoke.

 

On Dec.22 there was @15cm of new snow that had fallen overnight and covered a very thin (2mm.) freezing rain crust that must have formed at the beginning of the storm. The crust itself was not even noticeable when skiing (other than the noisy pole plants). There had been a little wind transport right at the ridgecrest that produced thin windslabs over the crust, but once down the slope a few turns it disappeared leaving low density skiing and 30cm. ski penetration. Snowpack depth at 6500ft. was 2-2.5 meters the Nov. raincrust has 1.8-2.0 meters over it in this location – there were no significant shears other than the thin raincrust.

 

Reports from the Mt. Machperson area just above Revelstoke said that there is no raincrust there – so the location is variable and appears to be limited to the western section of the range.

 

On Dec. 23 there was a further 15-20 cm. of very low density snow – similar wind affect limited to the ridgecrest. The main concern was loose snow sluffs triggered by the skiers as they skied down.

 

Last night in Revelstoke we received another 15cm. of snow from Santa – so it was a truly White Christmas.

 

Best of the Season to you all,

 

Scott Davis

Mountain Guide

Edited December 26, 2006 by jmckay

[jmckay]

Went ski touring today at Black Prince. About 25 - 30 cm of recent low density storm snow at the end of the day with practically no wind (where we were = treeline and below!) made for excellent skiing. At the turn around knob for the regular Black Prince slope, we could see a smallish (sz. 1.5) natural soft slab release in the alpine bowl up and climbers left of us. No skier triggering of slab avalanches obeserved, but the lack of cohesiveness within the new snow makes for pretty wild sluffing in steep terrain, which can well get you into trouble if trees are in your way!

 

As we left around 4PM it continued to snow at about 2cm / hour. Driving on the Spray Lakjes road was pretty adventurous too!

 

Cheers - enjoy the turns with all the new snow!

 

Jorg Wilz

 

Mountain Guide (ACMG / IFMGA / UIAGM)

1-800 506-7177 or (001) 403 678 2717

www.ontopmountaineering.com

[jmckay]

I have spent the last couple of days close to home skiing on Mt. Macpherson on the Monashee side of the Columbia valley.

 

Dec.26 - @30cm. storm snow from just before Xmas – no real slab and limited wind affect as far as treeline (7,000 ft. - I didn’t get any higher – a bit of a late start).

 

Dec.27 - @15-20cm. of snow overnight means rebreaking the trail from yesterday – a lot more wind today as the ridge built in behind the system – so lots of wind affect at and above treeline – lots of touchy soft slabs forming where I turned around – which was about 1,000ft. lower than yesterday – still good skiing (okay amazing) skiing where it is below treeline and protected from the winds.

 

Tomorrow will be the first blue sky day in a while so tread gently if you are foraying above treeline over the next few days.

 

Cheers,

 

Scott Davis

Mountain Guide

Edited December 28, 2006 by jmckay

[jmckay]

Went into the Upper Falls at Johnson Canyon today.

 

The main area, on the right side, was fat as per usual with lines form WI2 to 3.

The pillars to the left were either not touching or just barely touching down. They looked scary with a lot of large hanging icicles all around. I wouldn’t top rope any of them right now.

 

This area is very hazardous for the unwary and uninformed. Many climbers and especially the ‘canyon walkers’ do not realize the hazard under these daggers. Stay very clear of them and warn those that don’t.

 

Regards,

Rob Owens

Alpine Guide

 

 

Lifted from Live the vision

 

Unsafe climbing in Johnston Canyon - 2006/12/23 11:13 My friend and I were top roping on the left side of Johnston Canyon, on the steep ice above the water.

 

A party of three showed up later, and were climbing the easier ice on the right, leading to the first tree anchor.

 

This is what we have observed:

 

1) Leader placing screws at eye level

2) Leader dropping his tool

3) Leader getting pumped, taking his left hand off the tool, and grabbing the half driven in screw with both hands

4) Massive confusion between leader and belayer, upon reaching the tree anchor the leader was taken OFF BELAY, the leader then wanted to LOWER, only the yells of my partner made the leader stay put, and not move, until he was put back on belay

5) Leader climbing the corner of ice and rock boundary with the rope set up in such a way that it would result in significant pendelum swing

 

Cerainly there must be a better way to do this!

 

As for the 3 fellows who made us watch their nigthmare in Johnston Canyon, I hope you read this and get some proper instructions, before the natural selection takes place.

 

Part Two

 

 

User

Posts: 2

graphgraph

 

Re:Unsafe climbing in Johnston Canyon - 2006/12/26 11:22 was it these guys?

 

http://hydrogenplusstupidity.blogspot.com/

 

nice anchor....

Edited December 29, 2006 by jmckay

[jmckay]

I was up Little Sifton via Grizzly shoulder/bowl today under glorious Sunshine and cool temps. Another 5-10 cm.s overnight added to the previous storm snow making for some deep (40-60cm. ski penetration) tracksetting whenever you got tired of the usual straight up track on Grizzly shoulder. There was some heating of steeper sunny aspects – seen as moist snow on a steep SW facing traverse we did climbing out of Grizzly bowl.

 

Up higher you could feel old wind affect below the more recent low density snow but it wasn’t too thick where we traveled nor would it shear cleanly when tested. No wind to speak of today but you could see streaming snow off the higher peaks(over 10,000 ft.) in the am. I was surprised by the lack of recent wind effect in the area – but it did make for some great deep skiing. No recent avalanches observed short of some point releases (loose snow sloughs) in real steep terrain and no results from ski cuts or tests.

 

Lots of people in the pass and something to consider if there is any overhead hazard and people are above you – hard to say where people will ski these days.

 

Cheers,

 

Scott Davis

Mountain Guide

[jmckay]

I was working out of Callaghan Country's Lodge (at 4500' in the Callaghan drainage N of Powder Mountain) for the past 3 days. The height of snow at the study plot (5200') was 350cm. Most of the creeks and other early season features are well covered over.

The ski quality of the snow was generally good. At tree line the snow in the valley was unaffected by wind and presented 50-100cm foot penetration. In the Alpine the conditions where a bit more variable, but other than on the most wind hammered features (and below 6500') there was still good snow to be found.

For both treeline and in the alpine: the Avalanche Hazard was Moderate and Stability Good

 

Dave Sarkany

Ski Guide

[jmckay]

The bombs were going off at Norquay yesterday morning and that generally means an "upslope" storm so it was off to K-Country and 3 laps at Black Prince (Thursday, Dec 28).

 

AVALANCHES: Unlimited visibility on the drive there, no fresh avalanches noted except for some sluffing out of steep terrain. Evidence of some slabs that ran during the storm in alpine gully features, starting in steep cliffy terrain, up to size 1.5 (as per Jorg's post yesterday). Doesn't sound like there was much activity at Mt Norquay with the control work.

 

SNOWPACK: About 120cm of snow on the regular Black Prince lines, about a quarter of that was storm snow from Dec 27 (30cm). Overall a very consistent snowpack in the trees, just a thin weak layer on the ground around the November crust, noted with probing. At treeline the storm snow lies on top of what felt like an old 20cm thick windcrust, with some weak snow below the windcrust. Just above treeline we could see notable wind effect in the storm snow.

 

TESTS: Lots of ski traffic here both during the storm (old tracks) and while we were there. "Ski testing" was occurring on many steep slopes in the trees with no avalanches triggered, but nobody ventured into the higher elevations where it was wind effected.

 

WEATHER: Cold, clear and calm all day although there was some wind transport on the highest ridges in the afternoon. Surface hoar growing rapidly.

 

HAZARDS: Lots of snow available for wind transport and all steep features are plastered in snow with cornices hanging above - watch out for overhead hazard.

 

SKI QUALITY: Great skiing in the trees!

 

SEASON'S GREETINGS: Happy New Year.

 

Mark Klassen

Mountain Guide

[jmckay]

Went to the fire cut line just off Hwy 93 past the continental divide for a couple of afternoon turns. The clear cut line is well visible and quickly approachable from the road and gets skied regularly since it was about 2 summers ago. Cold temperatures in the morning (-20C) and warming up a bit with overcast that developed around noon. We could see occasional wind transport at ridgeline with southerly winds in the pm. No avalanche activity observed, except some sluffing in some of the steeper start zones of the big avalanche paths on the other side of HWY 93 (Mt. Wymper).

 

Surprising to me were two things:

The snow pack was only 50 - 70cm thick and very weak. Basal depth hoar and lots of faceting throughout the snow pack topped by 5 mm surface hoar crystals. The strongest part of the snow pack is a 1 finger, 20cm thick "mid-pack", which collapsed at times, making the skiing pretty hazardous given the chances to get your skis caught on rocks and roots along the ski line. No November crust to be found anywhere?

 

Upon return, we found the rear window of our car shattered - probably by a rock from a passing truck. There is not much space on the sideline for parking to begin with. Maybe we should have listened to the Wardens that we talked to earlier, who warned us of this very hazard! You were right, Percy! Probably best to park at the trailhead for Stanley Valley or Continental Divide and do the longer approach?

 

Cheers,

 

Jorg Wilz

 

Mountain Guide (ACMG / IFMGA / UIAGM)

1-800 506-7177 or (001) 403 678 2717

www.ontopmountaineering.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]

(This is one of the better climbs and a must do. The fixe rap ancchors that are Sean mentions are mine and I did put then in late in the season. I will have to do a topo at some point as there are a loy of raps if that is the way you choose to descend. there is a walk off from thr top with one short rap through the cliff band on the 4th pitch but this option does not get used that much.

Joe)

 

 

I had a fun day on Professor Falls (Dec 30). We got there first then had 3 other parties follow up behind

 

Approach: Mountain bikes made the tedious closed-road go quickly but we had to ditch them at the intersection (3.3 km on the bike odometer) where the old parking used to be due to unpacked snow on the road. From there easy walking on a packed trail to the base of the route.

 

Ice Conditions: The first pitch was a bit wet making the ropes stiff for the rest of the climb. The only other wetness was when my ice tool released a gusher near the top of the third pitch. Other than that the climb was pretty dry.. a little too dry in fact. While leading the fourth pitch, I encountered some weird stress fracturing and settling in the ice. It was kind of spooky. Incidentally, when rapping this pitch on the way down, it had transformed from brittle to wet plastic. Moral of the story, ice conditions are constantly changing day to day and even hour to hour. All the ice to the last pitch had seen lots of overnight reforming with almost no signs of traffic (ie- no hooks or steps). Conversely, the last pillar has not had any reforming so it was very beat out. Despite its funky appearance, it offered bomber tight hooks and good ball-of-your-feet steps. There is no bolted anchor at the top of this pitch nor good ice for a V-thread so we used the rock thread on climber's right. It is a big, solid feature with new rappel cord and a quick link.

 

Descent: The descent trail appeared to be blown in so we opted for rappelling the route. The numerous bolted anchors (some easy to miss so look around) make this straight forward as long as you do not throw your ropes on other parties while they are climbing. Some of the newer Fixe rap stations must have been placed later in the season when the ice is more filled out becasue they are high on the rock and difficult to reach.

 

Snow Conditions: The wind event last night scoured the bowl above the last pitch down to bare scree; yesterday it was white with snow. Also, the cornices on the summit ridge of Mt Rundle have definitely grown. The trail up the gully to the last pitch had disappeared under the newly transported wind blown snow. By the end of the day, once 4 parties had there way with it, the trail was back in.

 

Weather: Clear, sunny skies all day with the temperature at sunrise being -10 C. No wind on the route due to its sheltered position but light to moderate wind once we topped out on the last pitch. A snow plume was observed rocketing off the summit of Rundle during the hike out.

 

Happy New Year.

 

Sean Isaac

AAG

_______________________________________________

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.