A group of Thompson Rivers University students training for their ACMG exams spent the past week touring in the Whistler/ Blackcomb backcountry as well as one day up in the Duffy lake region.
Overall the conditions felt quite spring like with temperatures hovering around 0 for most of the week and spiking to 10+ c this past weekend. The snowpack seemed well below average with generaly around 150 cm's found at tree-line and 150-250cm's found on some of the glaciers. Having said this most of the "standard" Whistler area ski touring could still be accomplished with some good route finding. We found that due to the firm condition ski crampons and skinny skis were very useful.
Our main concerns for the week were open or sagging cravasses (crevasses that are not fully bridged) on all of the glaciers and the persistent weak layers at the bottom of the snowpack. To manage the crevasses we found ourselves roped up on many glaciers that in past years would have been easy walk ups. When we didn't have the rope on we found ourselves constantly probing to make sure we were still traveling in areas that had a consistently deeper snowpack and avoiding all areas that might hold crevasses, such as convexities. We had good visibility so we could see the areas of concern, but it would be quite scary to be on any glaciers right now in a white out.
Generally we felt pretty good about the avalanche conditions, but to manage the weak layers at the bottom of the snowpack we chose to keep away from steep, shallow and rocky areas as well as any slope that was heating up with solar radiation. As the weak got warmer we noticed that more natural avalanches were occuring on solar aspect, with many of them failing on the bottom of the snowpack. Several of there avalanches were up to size 2.5.
The conditions up on the Duffy lake were even more difficult than the Whistler area, this area had much less snow, especially below tree-line and many of the glaciers were in very difficult conditions. Of note one group skied up the Joffre lakes trail to ski the benign Tzil glacier. This group found the glacier in very broken conditions and the chance of a fall in a crevasse would be a real possibly at the moment. Ski conditions in and out of the areas were also very difficult. One of the other groups retreated from skiing the Ottoman Couloir on Cayoosh due to a hard slab at the entrance with a very obvious week layer of Facets below this. The Cerise creek trail and ski runs in this area seemed to be the only really skiing of any value or interest.
With the forecasted cooling temperatures and still sunny weather it may be possible to catch a few well timed (before it gets to warm!) corn runs or maybe even a few good turns on some north facing sheltered runs too. When we do get some new snow things could get quite interesting as there are many slippy surfaces for any snow to bond too.
Have fun out there.
Thompson Rivers University, Canadian Mountain and Ski Guide program students and instructors
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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.
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