I climbed at Step Right Up with a friend yesterday, Feb 25th. The climb is doing well, but some parts are deteriorating with strong sun in the afternoon. A good trail leads to the climb at present.
Happy trails,Friday, February 26, 2016
Thursday, February 25, 2016
[MCR] Rockies conditions - Weeping Wall/Weeping Pillar
Had the Weeping Wall to ourselves today. Conditions there felt more typical of mid-March, with both the lower and upper tiers looking bleached and sun affected.
At 6am it was -13C under thin cloud with none of the forecast wind. The right side route had mostly crisp snice that climbed well and yielded decent screws with digging. The less shaded Centre line looked noticeably more sun rotted, and the left side and Snivelling were showing very little blue ice with significant delamination down low and lots of running water. I suspect the latter two would be trickier than usual to climb and protect right now.
At the top of lower wall, despite the lack of wind we felt inspired by the continuing cool temps and cloud (-8C at 9am) to head up the Weeping Pillar. The track to the upper tier is well beaten right now and though we carried avi gear with us, the snowpack seemed well settled and unreactive there.
Initially, we found similar ice conditions as lower down, with relatively fast travel on styrofoam, although good screws were less available. There are still a few precarious daggers nearby, but only a little of the hangfire is directly overhead and there is no significant cornicing there right now. The pillar currently has several climbable options on each pitch and the easiest combination might go at a not-too-funky WI5.
However, the sun hits the upper pitches by ~10:30 now (09:30 for the lower wall), and by the time we reached the final pitch the clouds had disappeared, the snice was slush and the heat was pumping (5C at 11:30). With concerns about ice and snow instabilities we turned tail and ran away. On descent we passed through a noticeable inversion (-5C over just a few 100m) that will be something to keep in mind if it remains calm.
Get after it when conditions improve again!
[MCR] Cirque Peak, Banff National Park, Rockies, 2016-02-25
Did a nice tour up to Helen Lake, over Cirque Peak to the Cirque Glacier, and back around to Kathryn Lake with friends today. Travel was fast and the skiing was good on all but steeper South aspects where a temperature crust was present.
A few solar triggered avalanches up to size 1.5 observed out of steep rocky terrain starting around noon but the snow stayed quite cool all day. Recent debris from Dolomite Peak hit the uptrack on the way to Helen Lake, and there were many recent slides up to size 3 on the deep persistent layers along Helen Ridge and the backside of Cirque Peak. Lots of whumphing while travelling in thin snow pack areas. We minimized overhead hazard and avoided steep terrain with the exception of the coulior descent on the North side of Cirque Peak.
A 40m lower from a slung block gets you past the rocks in the North Couloir on Cirque Peak. An ice axe was handy for the last person down climbing to this point, boot crampons could be considered but were not needed today. The Cirque Glacier had been hit by the wind but was still soft enough to enjoy the skiing. One large open crevasse in the upper Cirque Glacier which was easily avoided.
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
[MCR] Roger Pass, Selkirks, Feb 21-24
Hi all,
I just finished 4 days of ski touring guiding in the Rogers Pass area. We toured in Connaught creek, the Illecillewaet valley, Asulkan and the Loop Brook area over this period. We took advantage of the good weather conditions to ski glaciated and supported alpine terrain to 40deg. There were heaps of other folks out there enjoying the current conditions and as a results there are a lot of tracks! The ski quality was good to excellent on Northerly aspects with some wind affect at ridge top however, there is now a breakable sun crust on most southerly aspects. The snow pack is recovering from the recent storm cycle and adjusting to the new load. We noticed two main layers of concerns in the upper snowpack; a storm interface down about 40cm and the February 10th layer down 60-80cm. Both these layer generally gave moderate to hard shear results. We measured an average height of snow of 275cm at treeline. The height of snow on the Illecillewaet Glacier at 2150m was 300+cm and 400+cm at 2300m on the protected Bonney Glacier. We did not observe any signs of instability (whumpfing or cracking). The solar radiations from the last few days triggered several dry/wet avalanches to size 2 on steep solar aspects, the most recent slab avalanches were from Monday. Of note, all the low elevation access trails are hard and icy making for sections of technical skinning. Also, there are many open creeks sections below treeline making for challenging crossing in some areas. This will likely deteriorate as Spring evolve.
Great mid-winter Spring skiing conditions!
Cheers,
David Lussier
acmg mountain guide
[MCR] Rockies, Wicked Wanda, Bow Summit, The Professor Falls.
On Feb 19th my buddy, Scotty, and I climbed Wicked Wanda. The horizontal ice in the valley bottom and along the approach trail was arguably more dangerous than the vertical ice and I vowed that next outing in the front ranges would see traction devices on my feet, other than my crampons.
The route was dry and in stellar shape with a fresh face and little evidence of previous ascents. We climbed it in two pitches with the second pitch taken on the climber's left hand to avoid dripping on the more common right hand variation. Sustained technical climbing of excellent quality and good screws, pig heaven.
The immediate area is about 98% bare rock and blue ice and 2% snow: no avalanche hazard in the alpine, treeline or below treeline. We carried no avalanche safety equipment.
Feb 21, 22 I instructed Avalanche Safety Training 1 in the Bow Summit area amongst numerous slabs out on north to east aspects in the alpine and treeline. The prize winner the 450 metre crown on Bow Peak mentioned in the Banff National Park hazard forecast over the weekend. Shocking to us was two Rutschblock scores of 2 with the whole block failing on the Jan 6th layer when the skier stepped one ski onto the block (https://www.mec.ca/media/Images/pdf/RutschblockTest_v2_m5657756983064519...). The failures were resistant planar on north aspects of 28 degrees at 2150 metres.
Monday we skied Bow Summit South avoiding overhead threat and skiing 1 and 2 at a time. Ski quality was very good, but I suspect that it's all tracked out now.
Feb 23 I guided an ascent of The Professor Falls. The golf course road has been sanded and rides well with normal bikes. We left our bikes at the closed road where the riding is on pure ice. If you have studded bike tires you could ride all the way to the drainage, or even the climb on a snow bike. I had traction devices and my client and I put them on although it is all ice all the way so one could just use crampons as I did on the way out.
The climb is big and blue and there is water running in places . The last pitch (the crux) is being climbed up the front of the pillar rather than it's left edge as in most other years. We carried avalanche safety equipment.
Happy Trails,
Barry Blanchard
Mountain Guide
[MCR] Rockies, Wicked Wanda, Bow Summit, The Professor Falls.
On Feb 19th my buddy, Scotty, and I climbed Wicked Wanda. The horizontal ice in the valley bottom and along the approach trail was arguably more dangerous than the vertical ice and I vowed that next outing in the front ranges would see traction devices on my feet, other than my crampons.
The route was dry and in stellar shape with a fresh face and little evidence of previous ascents. We climbed it in two pitches with the second pitch taken on the climber's left hand to avoid dripping on the more common right hand variation. Sustained technical climbing of excellent quality and good screws, pig heaven.
The immediate area is about 98% bare rock and blue ice and 2% snow: no avalanche hazard in the alpine, treeline or below treeline. We carried no avalanche safety equipment.
Feb 21, 22 I instructed Avalanche Safety Training 1 in the Bow Summit area amongst numerous slabs out on north to east aspects in the alpine and treeline. The prize winner the 450 metre crown on Bow Peak mentioned in the Banff National Park hazard forecast over the weekend. Shocking to us was two Rutschblock scores of 2 with the whole block failing on the Jan 6th layer when the skier stepped one ski onto the block (https://www.mec.ca/media/Images/pdf/RutschblockTest_v2_m5657756983064519...). The failures were resistant planar on north aspects of 28 degrees at 2150 metres.
Monday we skied Bow Summit South avoiding overhead threat and skiing 1 and 2 at a time. Ski quality was very good, but I suspect that it's all tracked out now.
Feb 23 I guided an ascent of The Professor Falls. The golf course road has been sanded and rides well with normal bikes. We left our bikes at the closed road where the riding is on pure ice. If you have studded bike tires you could ride all the way to the drainage, or even the climb on a snow bike. I had traction devices and my client and I put them on although it is all ice all the way so one could just use crampons as I did on the way out.
The climb is big and blue and there is water running in places . The last pitch (the crux) is being climbed up the front of the pillar rather than it's left edge as in most other years. We carried avalanche safety equipment.
Happy Trails,
Barry Blanchard
Mountain Guide
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
[MCR] Rogers Pass Feb.23/2016 Mt. Green - Ross Peak slide path
Hi Gang,
Spent the day with my good friend Giacomo Fano skiing up and back down the North facing Ross Pk. slidepath off of Mt. Green.
The approach through the hemlock of the designated route was in its usual crusty skittery condition with just enough uphill to require the skins and just enough downhill to wish you didn't have them on ;-) !
Once in the open terrain we found 10-15cms of new snow over a previous temperature crust that was supportive, yet soft enough to edge when tracksetting in the steep lower part of the path. This was only present up to the 1200m. elevation after which things softened right up allowing for 30-40cms ski penetration in soft (Fist) snow that was overlying a previous windslab that seemed well settled and bonded.
We saw no recent avalanche activity and what had happened previously was well covered with new snow - there were a few old cornice chunks that had fallen off the summit ridge and tumbled down the slope a bit but that was pretty much it.
Other than that we had great ski conditions for an amazing 1600m. vertical run to the valley floor.
From the highway at the end of the day we could see a fair bit of solar activity that had occurred during the day up to size 2 (see blurry photo of Avalanche crest)
Cheers,
Scott Davis
ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide
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