[MCR] Canmore Junkyards April 30

Guided an intro ice day at the Junkyards above Canmore. It is getting pretty sun and temperature affected, but still provided good pick sticking.

The line on climber's left between the rock outcrops offered good climbing. The main ice buttress to the right has some pretty big cracks across parts of it, but looks climbable.

I extended a top rope anchor off trees to avoid using ice screw anchors in the aerated iced. Directional ice screws were melting out fast and could be pulled straight out by hand about an hour after they were placed. There wasn't even much direct sun today, with multiple convective snow showers passing through the area.

Jordy Shepherd
ACMG / IFMGA Mountain Guide
www.PeakAlpine.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.

[MCR] Bow Summit April 29

Yesterday (April 29) there was 15-25 cm of new snow at Bow Summit on a supportive crust. The new snow was sluffing off steep slopes in the alpine, and we noted one size 2 slab in the alpine on the highway side of Cirque Peak.

Ski quality was good, but the new snow was getting moist on solar aspects by noon.

There are some deeper wind loaded pockets to watch out for, and the new snow was stiffening into a soft slab, and bonding poorly to the crust.

Jordy Shepherd
Mountain Guide
www.PeakAlpine.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.

[MCR] North Rockies Traverse

Yesterday six of us completed a variation of the North Rockies ski traverse, starting near Jasper (Portal Creek) and ending up at the Clemenceau Icefield. We were out from April 18-26 and spent most of the time above treeline within a few km of the Great Divide.

It still felt wintry, especially the first several days with overnight lows between -11 and -15. At the end of the trip it warmed significantly with -3 recorded at 2000 m at the 4 am start to our last day. However, alpine north aspects still had dry snow and trailbreaking through low density powder. There were thin suncrusts on south aspects, some of which were carrying the weight of a skier. By now there will be thin temperature crusts up to treeline.

Snow coverage was excellent on the entire route with treeline snow depths in the 2+ m range. On the glaciers it was generally 3+ m although in windward areas it was often thinner.

Avalanche activity was limited to solar triggered avalanches, mostly loose, and a few cornice falls. The largest avalanche was a size 3 broad cornice release on the east face of Mt Brown on April 23. We had one large whumpf in a thin snowpack moraine area, W aspect, 2400 m, on April 24 on the first warmer day.

This is one of the best ski traverses I have ever done, for a route description go to www.facebook.com/alpinism (you don't need a facebook account to view).

Congratulations to Eric Harvie and Felix Belczyk for having now completed the entire Great Divide Traverse from Jasper to Lake Louise. We may have to claim the slowest traverse, seeing as it took us four trips over seven years!

Mark Klassen

Mountain Guide

Erica Roles

Asst. Ski/Asst. Alpine Guide

Beacon Lake

[MCR] Rockies, Popes Peak

My fellow Mountain Guide, Steve Holeczi, and I went to take a look at
the skiing the left hand Narao Gully today, April 27th. Great
skinning up on a supportive crust in the morning in the forest (we
didn't use, or have, ski crampons). We chose to give the Narao Gully
a miss given that a slab had avalanched out of the right hand gully
in the last few days. The crown looked to be one and a half meters at
the deepest and the slab failed pretty much from one side of the
gully to the other. We continued on up valley for the Popes Peak
tour. Felt like winter in the upper valley and we had good dust on
crust skiing. Moist snow in the forest on the way down, but the crust
remained supportive. A good day.

Happy trails,

Barry Blanchard
Mountain Guide
www.barryblanchard.ca
www.yamnuska.com

[MCR] Rockies, Chester Lake couloir

Fellow Mountain Guide, Steve Holeczi, and I attempted to ski the
Chester Lake Couloir in Kananaskis Country yesterday, April 26th.
Once into the couloir we found a firm to hard chalky snow surface,
not the best for skiing. We surmised that the couloir had seen a lot
of sloughing recently, and that wind had subsequently pressed the
surface. We turned around 400 meters up and did a lot of side
slipping until the lower couoir, that is more open and less steep,
where we were able to start turning.

Next we skied up to a col just southwest of Mt Chester. This slope
had a size 3 avalanche come out of it earlier this winter and
although that made for a very firm base it also churned up some rocks
that we had to be wary of on the ski down. But back to the col, some
good views of the Ranger Creek ice climbs (below). We did get some
good turns threading the needle between avalanche debris and sun crusts.

Happy trails,

Barry Blanchard
Mountain Guide
www.barryblanchard.ca
www.yamnuska.com

[MCR] Burstall Pass, K Country April 25

Skied up towards Burstall Pass on April 25. Crust on solar aspects, and 5-10 cm of skiable but slightly moist powder on north and east aspects. Fast travel on a well packed trail.

Evidence of an avalanche cycle to size 3 on solar aspects in the alpine, from the previous few days of warm temps and clear skies. We had a mix of sun, cloud and convective snow showers, which kept temps cooler and resulted in minimal sun affect.

No slab avalanches observed on north or east aspects. 185cm's of snow at 2150 m.

Jordy Shepherd
Mountain Guide
www.PeakAlpine.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.

[MCR] Selkirk Mtns-Mount Cartier-Ghost Peak Apr 22-23 2011

Just spent a couple of days this past weekend in the Mount Cartier-
Ghost Peak area SE of the Revelstoke Mountain Resort. We skied out in
the late afternoon of Saturday April 23rd, so this information is a
few days old.

We found a variety of conditions: Good powder snow on true North
aspects down to 2000m. Windslabs at ridge tops and below. Temperature/
suncrusts on all solar aspects. On these aspects, we found 5cm of
moist/wet snow on the surface sitting on a 3-4cm supportive crust
(before it got cooked and too weak to support the weight of a skier).

We backed off our larger objective (NE face of Cartier) due to
windslabs on big convex features but found excellent powder on several
North facing slopes as well as good corn on E and S aspects.

Some moist point releases had triggered thin slab avalanches to sz 2
on East aspects. The day before our arrival, a party of skiers had
triggered a sz 1.5 avalanche, 20-30cm deep on a SW aspect, 40 degrees
steep.

Our main concerns were very large cornices, windslabs and multiple
crusts buried on solar aspects. We skied up to 40 degrees slopes on
North aspect.

Surface hoar to 4mm was observed Sunday morning. These crystals were
destroyed by the sun during the day on solar aspects but may have
remained intact on North slopes at higher elevation and could have
been buried by yesterday snow showers.

The ski out from our camp between Mt Cartier and Ghost Peak to the RMR
boundary took 3.5hrs and is truly a spectacular tour on a high ridge
affording breathtaking views of the Monashees and Selkirk Mountains.

We found this area challenging as it presents big, steep and complex
terrain that can be difficult to avoid. Conditions need to be
favourable and a great deal of experience is required to navigate
safely through this big mountain terrain.

Sylvain Hebert
ACMG Ski Guide