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Mountain Conditions Summary for the Rockies and
Columbia Mountains, issued June 10th, 2006.
Mountain travel conditions are generally more
like we would expect for early july than mid june. Widespread snowcover
begins around 2700m(9000ft) and the whole snowpack up to at least
3350m(11,000ft) has undergone numerous melt freeze cycles and is in late
spring/early summer condition. We have no recent reports from above
3350m(11,000ft) but I would suspect it is still feels like winter high on all
but the south sides of Mt. Robson, Clemenceau, Columbia etc.
Access and approach trails for the Bugaboos,
Rogers Pass, Lake Louise group, Columbia Icefields etc are generally in
good condition. Rivers and creeks are still high and there may be lots of
unrepaired trail damage from the winter but snow should not be a big issue,
outside of old avalanche deposits, below 2500m's.
Alpine rock routes on all except North faces and
especially east of the divide in the Rockies are in good early season
conditions. Some examples would be from Castle Mtn east to Yamnuska in the
Bow Valley, the Colin range in Jasper, Mt Tupper and Macdonald
west face in Rogers Pass and Snowpatch and Marmolata in the Bugaboos. These
should all dry out quickly if and when the rain stops.
Examples of routes still buried in snow would be
the East Ridge of Edith Cavell, North face of Mt. Temple, NW arete on Sir
Donald, and the NE ridge of Bugaboo spire.
Glacier travel and snow and ice climbing conditions are generally poor for
this weekend due to the present warm and wet pacific storm. Condition will
remain poor until we get back into a period of colder temperatures. As long
as we don't get any signifigant new snow out of this storm, snow conditions
could quickly become excellent with one good cold, clear night. However, we
can still expect another cycle of falling cornices, failing snow
bridges, wet snow avalanches and rockfall when the alpine snowpack
next meets the afternoon heat under a hot june sun.
Larry Stanier
Mountain Guide
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