Dave, Jeff, Andy and I skied up to the toe of the Little Crowfoot
(Ferris) Glacier today. This is the glacier to the south of Bow Hut,
with Crowfoot Mountain to the east and "Vulture" Peak to the west.
Wx: No precipitation, max -9, min -10, high thin overcast with valley
fog and fog on the Wapta icefield, calm all day, 2 cm new snow
overnight and 10-15 cm storm snow from the previous several days.
No avalanche activity noted.
Below treeline all the way through the canyon there isn't enough snow
to avalanche. Just below treeline this changes and there is about 50-75
cm of snow, the mid-pack is weak and you punch through it about 50% of
the time both up and down, into the weak facets beneath. The mid-pack
slab here doesn't seem to have a lot of tension in it and there were no
whumpfs.
Once in the moraines, the wind got to the snowpack before the most
recent storm leaving a hard layer that supports a skier. About 10 cm of
soft storm snow lies on top of that. On the bottom are the ubiquitous
facets. This combination resulted in loud whumpfs all the way through
the moraines, every 10 or 20 meters.
So we stayed on terrain less than 30 degrees and away from any large
slopes above. Our late start necessitated a descent from the toe of the
glacier rather than going onto the glacier and summitting Little
Crowfoot peak. I would have been leery of going straight up the steep
toe of the glacier, it's less steep at the easternmost edge of it.
Excellent ski quality to treeline, with the fluff on top of the hard
surface. Once in the trees it wasn't very good, we broke through the
mid-pack into the weak snow near the ground. Lots of small rocks to
dodge on the way out.
I rated the Danger as Considerable in the alpine, Moderate at treeline,
Low below treeline.
Mark Klassen
Mountain Guide
mark@xxxxxxxxxxxx
www.alpinism.com
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