[MCR] Ice fields parkway

Guided Weeping wall right side today.
 
The colder cloudy temperatures kept the ice well in tacked, good to climb
(read good sticks) in today's conditions but would turn rather scary under sunny skies.
As is, despite having good tool placements, we had to dig 10 to 20cm to get good screws.
 
The snow came down quite hard all morning for a total accumulation of approximately 20cm by 13:00. I used three pairs of gloves on the route due to the snow and occasional spindrift from the ledge above the second pitch.
The new snow made rappels touchy turning the ropes icy.
The temps reached a high of -2.
Overall tones of snow now blankets the entire Parkway from Lake Louise on with deteriorating driving conditions.

 cheers
 
 
Patrick Delaney
ACMG Alpine Guide
403 688 6003  
"Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value."
Albert Einstein

 

[MCR] Selkirk Mountains, Whitewater ski area

Quite a stormy day in the Whitewater ski area backcountry today. Winter
is back, at least for now. Plenty of snow transport with the moderate
southwest winds gusting to strong above 2000m. There was also some snow
falling, but I think the wind transport was having a greater affect on
accumulations.

We circumnavigated Ymir Peak to check out the conditions on various
aspects. We skied an elevation range of 1750m to 2300m. A supportive
crust (doesn't break when you ski on it) exists on all aspects and
elevations we were on. Up to 15-20cm of new snow sits on the crust and
made the skiing very enjoyable. The snow wasn't bonding well to the
crust but it also hadn't been blown yet into a slab, so we didn't see
any avalanche activity. The air temperature was steady around -7 to -8
depending on elevation.

We managed to get a lot of good turns on various aspects, but we
employed the usual cautions: stuck to low angle terrain, avoided convex
rolls, skied slopes one at a time, etc. Looks like the storm will
continue for another day, so I'd expect stability to deteriorate as the
new snow slabs up. I'd be employing extra cautions if I went out tomorrow.

Play safely.

Craig Hollinger,
ACMG 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.

[MCR] Bow-Mistaya Mar 8-10

We did a three day trip on the Wapta over the last three days with a night
at Bow Hut and one at Mistaya Lodge.

By Tuesday morning there was approximately 20 cm of new storm snow with
little wind effect.

Travel over the glaciers is good with well over 2 metres of coverage on
average. Wind exposed rolls and steeper broken areas seem to have
considerably less, however, and there are a number of sagging bridges on
the crevasses. With good visibility we travelled with harnesses on and only
roped up for a crevassed section near between Habel and Baker. In white
conditions the rope definitely would be required.

Ski conditions on the Wildcat ( Baker) Glacier were excellent Tuesday with
30 cm ski penetration, and there are a number of wands put in by Dave
Bernie at the Lodge to help avoid the crevasses on the glacier.

Temperatures dropped to -19 by Wednesday morning and winds in the moderate
range overnight and throughout the day were rapidly creating wind slabs.
The travel was somewhat more difficult with double penetration through wind
skin and ski conditions had deteriorated to fair in breakable wind crust.
Tracks were being blown in within minutes. The Baker Trapper col had a 25
cm thick wind slab over a previous hard wind crust that would have been
problematic on a steeper feature.

Numerous natural slab avalanches up to size 1.5 were noted on steep lee
features. Most occurred on northerly aspects on slopes above 40 degrees and
involved only the recent storm snow. The suspected failure layer was
surface hoar buried March 08 as some avalanches were triggered by loose
sluffs running from higher elevations and then pulling 20-30 cm thick slabs
on mid elevation planar features.

There were lots of parties around Bow Hut enjoying the sun and new snow
with several aggressive lines being skied. No skier triggered avalanches
were observed, but it is my guess that it was only the lack of propagation
potential with the still quite soft slab that prevented some slopes from
sliding. Things are probably more tricky now with another full day of
moderate winds. There are now three major layers of concern in the upper
pack: The March 08, the Feb 08 and the Jan 25, any of which might be
triggered with the snowfall and wind combination we have had.

Brad White
Mountain 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.

[MCR] Jasper National Park, The Andromeda Strain

Made an attempt on the Andromeda Strain yesterday, March 10th. Quite cold in the wee hours, 4 am, - 18? A winter's day up there: cold dry snow, numb fingers. We did the approach in boot soles and it took about four hours to get up below the route. Snowshoes may have been an asset once you get to the glacial areas, but you'd have to carry them for at least half of the time.

Deep snow to trench up getting off of the glacier and onto the ice border above the bergschrund (no problem getting over the schrund as it is well filled in). That 30 meters of border ice was the last ice that we saw for the 3 pitches that we climbed. Its a bummer for me to think back to the three times that I ascended the lower half of the route in 1983 (attempts and, eventual, first ascent of the route) and remember the ice slopes and gullys that were there at that time. And there was ice there on my one return to the route in 2006. Several hot summers have melted all of that ice away now. Yesterday we had snow, some supportive, some unsupportive, over dirty loose rock and it was far from the quality climbing experience that it use to be. Looked like another 3-4 ropelengths of the same to get to the steeper climbing of the Direct, or classic traverse out right. We bailed.

I think that the route may be like what I hear the Eiger to be like now -best in a normal winter ie: normal amounts of snowfall unlike the draught that we're in, when accumulated and compressed snow can fill in where the ice use to be ... still can't get ice screws into that snow though.

Winds picked up to moderate as we walked away at 4 pm and the sky was going to overcast, lots of snow blowing around.

Happy trails,

Barry Blanchard

Mountain Guide

www.barryblanchard.ca

[MCR] ongoing avalanche problems in BC interior, S and N coast mtns

If you are reading the Canadian Avalanche Centre North Columbia, South Columbia, and Kootenay-Boundary public avalanche forecasts (http://www.avalanche.ca/cac/bulletins/cac-forecasts) regularly, the information here is going to be old news. However, things are so strange out there right now, I feel I should once again give folks a bit of a heads up on the ongoing surface hoarror show. (My brother Mark and I came up with the same "hoarror" pun without knowledge the other was doing it. Scary, isn't it? Mark was first, so credit goes to him.)

 

After a significant decline in avalanche activity in the Columbia Mountains over the weekend, there was a major  increase (400%) in reported activity Monday and that number doubled again on Tuesday. The snowpack just keeps tossing curve balls and I've pretty much stopped trying to predict what's going to happen next. Avalanche sizes continue to be quite large. In a very close call yesterday, 5 people were caught and 4 fully buried in a 350m wide size 2.5 avalanche, which occurred when they were travelling on a 5 day old bed surface; 32 seasons in this business, and I think that's a first for me. This is evidence that what's starting to feel like a never-ending cycle is not finished yet. I'm getting new images of notable and unusual avalanches regularly and am posting them on our new image gallery. Check out this morning's additions at: http://www.avalanche.ca/cac/library/avalanche-image-galleries/feb-march-2010

 

After initial indications on the weekend that things were starting to settle down, the most recent persistent weak layer (March 8th surface hoar) went active on Monday with minimal amounts of precipitation: as little as 10-15mm water equivalent/20-25cm fairly light new snow. That's similar to what happened with the February layers and it's unusual. Generally it takes 40mm/70cm or so before you'd see this level of increased activity. The February layers have come back to life too. This is now day 28 of high reactivity and/or unusual events on the Feb 8th layer. Crikey! And even deeper layers are suspected in a size 3 avalanche that occurred on March 8^th in the Monashees.

 

The weather forecast suggests a real storm (the first one since so long ago I can't remember when) is possible later this week, especially in the southern interior. Personally, I'll believe it when I see it but it's worth starting to think ahead. There's quite a lot of uncertainty regarding track and intensity of the storm. In terms of timing though, the next loading cycle looks like it will start Wednesday night and god only knows what havoc that might wreak when it happens. Upslope (W or SW facing slopes) south of the trans-Canada highway will possibly see 20-40mm of water equivalent, which means 30-60cm of new snow. I stress the word possible. But even if we get half that, given the layers we have in the snowpack all heck is probably going to break loose starting Thursday sometime, with elevated levels of reactivity and ongoing weirdness very likely to persist through the weekend. Areas north of the TCH right now look like they'll get less weather but might still be enough to elevate danger there. And given the uncertainty in the weather forecast, all it'll take is for the low to track a bit farther north and areas up to Prince George could be affected.

 

The biggest problems are concentrated exactly on the aspects and elevations where good snow is preserved. Anywhere you are getting good powder riding is highly suspect and should be treated with the utmost caution in the Cariboos, Selkirks, Monashees, Kootenays, and South Chilcotin Mountains. The mountains around Terrace and Stewart are also problematic.

 

In the coming days, whether we get the storm or not, it's likely to get trickier before there's any chance of it getting better. I'm going into the mountains tomorrow to start my next guiding shift and I intend to go to great lengths in staying away from large terrain features and places where there is overhead hazard. The current and forecast conditions require a high degree of discipline and constant vigilance to maintain adequate safety margins. In our area, we've been riding tracks on the same 20 or 25 runs out of 125 in our tenure since early February and I expect we'll continue doing that for the next week at least. The number of runs we consider safe might even decrease if the snowfall amounts predicted are accurate. In my CAC forecasts, I've been saying that extensive experience coupled with professional level training and safety systems are required to manage risk in most areas.

 

I know I'm telling many of you exactly what you don't want to hear but man, it's weird out there right now.

 

Feel free to forward this or repost in other venues.

 

Karl Klassen

Mountain Guide

Public Avalanche Bulletins Manager

Canadian Avalanche Centre

kklassen@avalanche.ca

[MCR] Louise Falls

We managed to be the first of 4 parties today on Louise Falls. There were about 10 cm of fresh snow at the lake level and temps of -12 when we left the parking lot around 9 AM. The climb is in good condition with the crux pitch being a bit drippy. The easiest line for the crux curtain from the center of the cave is pretty sporty (as usual) and all but hacked out.  Fortunately, bridging between two columns keeps the grade around the guide book rating of easy WI 5. Of note is the fact that once the sun was out, the climbers right side daggers immediately to the right of the climbing line made noises while we were belaying in the cave. There is also a settlement crack visible but the daggers seem to keep hanging on for the time being as they are connected on the side to a larger column that has pretty good support. In summary, have a good look before you start and choose your route wisely if at all you want to expose yourself to the Louise Falls overhead hazard.

 

Cheers,

Jorg Wilz

Mountain Guide (ACMG / VDBS / IFMGA)

 

OnTop ltd.
www.ontopmountaineering.com
1-800 506 7177 or (001) 403 678 2717

 

[MCR] Haffner Creek, KNP & The Professor Falls, BNP

Hola amigos.

 

A new obs. from a few recent days of ice work.

Out at Haffner a few days ago and thought it might be worth noting some pretty big settlements and cracks on the ice between "The Flake Route" and "Shagadelic". The dagger hanging in front of the mixed line "Half a Gronk has got a crack that has opened up about 4in. or so, that may be partially healed but still looks pretty unstable, been giving that one a miss for a week or two now since it first appeared.  While one of the other guides was climbing "The Flake Route", one tool placement near the top sent a shooting crack the full length of the dagger there as well, didn't open up or collapse at all but we could see the fracture went the full width of the ice - we felt that we might have been able to get a few laps on the route before the daytime warming really started to affect things, made us realize pretty quickly how much tension the ice was actually holding, even early in the day. Needless to say we pulled that rope pretty quickly and moved on. 

Temperatures in the morning when we rolled into the parking lot were down around -13*C, and by mid day had warmed up to +2*C.

 

The Professor Falls was in good shape, easy WI4 probably. Completely dry except for the last pitch, and good hooks the whole way. 0*C in the parking lot at 0700hrs. and didn't get anything warmer than that while we were on the route. Snow was in and out all day along with light crosswinds from the west but really didn't start to come down until we were pulling the ropes on the last rappel. 

 

Be safe and have fun out there!

 

 

Mike Trehearne
ACMG - Assistant Alpine Guide
Mobile +1.403.679.8080

m_trehearne@hotmail.com