An exhausting trip on the Wapta with Luis Castillo, and an aborted attempt (due
to very poor visibility) at circumnavigating Mt. Gordon via the south glacier
route yesterday. We made it up to just below the col and descended back to
Balfour Pass. With good visibility and continued good stability this would be a
recommended route right now.
Conditions are excellent for this time of the year:
With a decent pair of rock skis you can ski about 60-70% of the approach to
the Bow Hut up and down. The rest is walking on a well-packed trail (thanks to
the dozen or so weekend visitors!) You can use the winter trail for the first
canyon (on the left), but the second canyon is still best passed on the summer
trail (access it about 100 m into the canyon via an obvious snow slope, above
the canyon on the left).
30-40 cm ski pen on the glaciers where not wind affected – light fluffy
stellars.
From the little investigation we did of the snowpack, it seems reminiscent
more of Rogers Pass than the Rockies… That said, there are some layers failing
in the moderate range with Compression Tests, in the upper snowpack.
Daytime highs of about -9, lows of about -15.
Lots of moderate winds with frequent strong gusts – plenty of wind transport
and wind affect, but also lots of areas with virtually undisturbed snow, e.g.
on the Vulture Glacier, S Gordon Glacier.
Grant Meekins and Meagan Carney skied the West Glacier on Mt. Olive yesterday
(Sunday), a steep line up to mid/high 30’s, and reported good stability and
excellent ski quality.
At 5:00 pm yesterday the glacier above the Bow hut was firming up with a soft
windslab that still offered OK skiing but hinted at possible problems to come .
However, as of yesterday evening we saw only minor sluffing on steep terrain
(e.g. below the seracs above Bow Hut).
HS ranging from nil (e.g. around Balfour Pass) to 75 cm (top of the onion
skin/glacier above Bow Hut), to 200+ cm (Vulture Glacier, etc.)
Avalanche Hazard summary:
Alpine: Moderate
Treeline: Low
Below Treeline: Snowpack is still a work in progress…
Stability: F-G (deteriorating with wind)/G/~
Regards,
Tom Wolfe
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