We
went ski touring in Commonwealth Creek (Little Commonwealth Traverse) on Sunday
Dec 4.
Looks
like the area has seen a fair bit of travel lately, inspite of the fact that
the snow depth in the trees is rather skimpy (around 40 – 60cm of faceted
snow) and hitting rocks and deadfall is unavoidable. Temps between -16C (at
departure at 10AM) warming up to -10C at return to the car at 3PM with the front
approaching, which brought about 5 cm 12 hour snow to Canmore today.
Snow
pack in the alpine and at tree line was very wind affected and we managed to
kick off some very small, hard wind slabs, which went on facets above of a melt
freeze crust. The melt-freeze crust itself is loosing strength due to faceting
with the cool temps lately. However, no recent naturals observed.
Let’s
hope for more snow!
Jorg
Wilz
Mountain
Guide IFMGA / UIAGM