[MCR] Kootenays - Valkyr Range

Just finished a week at Valkyr Lodge (south of Nakusp and west of the Valhalla Range). Primary concerns over the week were isolated areas of hard wind slab from a strong NE wind event mid-week, three weak surface hoar layers in the top meter, and large cornices.

Yesterday we had a significant storm, which started with moderate southwest winds all night and ended in the morning with a calm snowfall that put down close to 30 cm of snow in just a couple of hours (at one point I measured that it was snowing 9 cm per hour). We flew out at about noon and saw many avalanches on NE slopes, mostly soft slabs that I suspect were windslabs from the storm and/or failing on a surface hoar layer that would now be buried down about 40-50 cm. Avalanche sizes were 1.5 - 2.

Mark Klassen

Mountain Guide

[MCR] Cirque Peak, Banff Park Feb 28

Skied on the highway side of Cirque Peak today, up to treeline. Easy travel on skis, with about 15cm of ski penetration. 15-20 cm of new snow made for good skiing.

The travel from Canmore was horrible on Highway 1 and 93N, with blowing snow, and not a snowplow in sight on the 93N until the end of the ski day.

There is a buried windslab at treeline and above, that is very stiff. No whumphing noted, but it feels like it wants to. I would be very cautious on open treeline and alpine slopes that are steep enough to slide.

-21 C was the high temp at 2300m, with a cold north wind at the highway elevation, but almost no wind above.

Jordy Shepherd
Mountain Guide
www.PeakAlpine.com

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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] Lake Louise Falls

Up the Falls today on a very busy Monday. -18C in the parking lot at 0700, high of -15C at noon. Unlike the blizzard on the drive in from Canmore, calm to variable light winds all day at the Lake, with about 10cm in our tracks by the time it had stopped on the way out .  

The pillar is as much of a pegboard as I can ever remember, so not much swinging required through the crux. Just enough ice for screws amongst the usual swiss cheese. LOTS of recent storm snow accumulation to wallow up mid-route on the right side as well as above the route, with several small sluffs down the route as we were topping out. The donkey trail down is in decent shape with a few, steep, hard-packed sections on old debris. Off-trail boot penetration was bottomless, with isolated pockets of soft slabbing.

Carl Johnston, AAG/RG

Yamnuska Mountain Adventures

  

[MCR] avalanche control on EEOR for Mar 1

Avalanche Control is planned for EEOR tomorrow (Mar 1) depending on the weather. No activity of any kind is allowed on EEOR tomorrow. HWY 742 will be closed during the control work. Estimated time of closure is 11:00am to Noon.
 
Thank you for your cooperation.

Jeremy Mackenzie
ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide
Kananaskis Country Public safety

[MCR] Rockies, The Professor Falls. Pretty Nuts

I guided The Professor Falls. on Feb 22. We rode bikes to the where you branch off onto the right hand road, which is not plowed. If you take bikes leave them there as beyond that the road is too deep in snow to be rideable. The route is in fine shape, although we didn't make it up to the last pitch.

Today, Feb 23rd, I guided Pretty Nuts. We took one bike and our driver biked down to us after dropping us and the gear off. Biked back up to get the truck for the pick-up at the end of the day. Faster than walking the 2 kms there, and 2 kms back. The route is in great shape. Solid walking from the road to the route, and between the pitches, on avalanche debris and slid-to-ground hardness. We traversed climbers right to finish the 3rd step of ice, as per the guidebook, and got down fall-line in 3 full 70 meter rappels from trees. Our last rappel was spiraled to climber's right to reach the high debris in a drainage where we frontpointed down for 5 meters, then walked down to the road.

Happy trails,

Barry Blanchard

Mountain Guide

www.barryblanchard.ca

www.yamnuska.com

[MCR] Selkirks: Valkyr Range

First full day of our Valkyr Lodge week and two things jumped out at me:

- The cornices are the largest I've seen in 7 winters of working here

- We had a sudden planar shear 60 cm down on an east aspect at 2200m. This is the first "cash-register" shear like this I've seen in quite some time. It failed on a 5 cm thick layer of rounding facets and surface hoar. Previous groups have seen this shear but it has mostly been resistant in character so I suspect the surface hoar is spotty. There has been no avalanches on this layer here but it did make think a bit

20 cm of cold smoke here in the past 24 hrs.

Mark Klassen

Mountain Guide

[MCR] Rogers Pass - Bonnie Moraines / Mt Green

Spent a pleasant day at the Pass today with my wife Deb and Karsten Heuer. Clear skies, light wind and a high of -13 observed.

We skied the N face of Mt Green with a detour and short but excellent pitch (no wind effect) on the Bonnie Moraines enroute to gain the couloir up to the summit ridge. Some surface hoar developing in this area, small, up to 2mm observed at treeline.

It would be wise to bring lightweight boot crampons and perhaps ice axe for the final rockband before the col. It's dodgy for about 10m without.

The summit ridge travels well on hard facetted snow. The descent down the north side -- looks like a previous party dug through the cornice on the west side. We descended the NE ridge directly from the summit dropping about 75m before cutting left. The skiing here wasn't great and there's some dicey steep sidestepping through a rockband covered in facets to the glorious slopes below but it worked. Ski quality from there was generally excellent with some wind press especially at the top.

Travel was quick on existing tracks (thanks to whomever cut the excellent uptrack up to the col) and trailbreaking was light to moderate with less than boot top penetration.

Tom Wolfe
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Tom Wolfe
Mountain Guide ACMG/IFMGA
cell: 403-861-1079 home: 403-678-4997
sent via Blackberry
_______________________________________________
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.