[MCR] Rockies, Icefall Lodge, Mt Forbes

Skied the last week at Icefall Lodge. The week started with spring conditions, good freezes overnight, supportive crusts and dry powder on north aspects. Since Tuesday May 3 15 cm of snow has fallen at 2500m. This is settling quickly at lower elevations. This morning at 1900m we had a temperature of -.5 and a 5 cm thick crust which supported most of the morning. North aspect now have a temperature crust up to 2200m with dry snow above. There was some cracking around our skis on wind loaded areas near ridge line but we weren't able to ski cut any avalanches.
On May 2 we climbed Mt Forbes and skied from the shoulder 150m below the summit. A party the day before had skied from the summit. There are large patches of bare ice on the east side of the face but the centre is pretty well covered, picture below. The North Glacier of Forbes also has large patches of blue ice on the side, but had over 320 cm of snow in several places we probed. The Lyell and Mons Glaciers appeared to have better coverage and were over 320cm everywhere we probed. The valleys in Glacier Lake and Alexandra still looked to be well covered with snow.