[MCR] Lake Louise - Wapta

Subject: [MCR] Lake Louise - Wapta
Date: Sat, 1 Apr 2006 21:10:26 -0700
The Assistant Ski Guide Exam was skiing in the Lake Louise/Bow Summit/Wapta region for the past week.

Variable weather over the week, with very warm solar events interspersed between intense snow squalls and wind events. Variable amounts of storm snow were deposited over the period, from 10-30 cm.

We found good skiing on northerly aspects above 2100m with variable crusts and loose snow on all other slopes. There is surface hoar buried 15-30 cm down but distribution seemed variable, we found it on north and east facing slopes at and above treeline and it was present even on high alpine glaciers and moraines. This layer has recently been skier triggered, with avalanches to size 1.5.

Very large avalanches have also been occurring on steep east and northeast slopes in the alpine, most notably on the Wapta. Triggers have been cornices which have been failing due to windloading or warm temperatures. One avalanche off the east face of Mt Baker occurred in the middle of the night and was size 3.5, with debris running hundreds of meters across the flat glacier below. There were also numerous loose snow avalanches to size 2 on solar aspects, triggered with daytime warming.

There was good coverage on the icefields, with about 300 cm of snow.

Mark Klassen
Mountain Guide
mark@xxxxxxxxxxxx
www.alpinism.com