[MCR] Columbia Icefields and Mt. Hector, April 28th to May 5th, 2007

Spent a wintery week up on the Columbia Icefields with Tim Haggarty and a crew from the ACC climbing some of the high peaks up there.  

 

A large storm brought in 30-40cm of snow with strong winds on April 27th resulting in a widespread cycle of avalanche activity up to size 2.5 on wind loaded features.  An additional 30cm of snow through the week with some wind kept us away from larger steeper features all week but provided good skiing!  Large settlements on low angle terrain persisted throughout our trip.  I would continue to be cautious of windslabs in the alpine for the next while.

 

Glacier travel was good with 3.5m+ of snow in most places up high. One notable exception was the traverse between Snowdome and the Stutfield/North Twin col where in wind scoured areas there was between 1m and 0cm of snow on the ice and several crevasses with recently formed bridges of 10cm or less.

 

The Saskatchewan Glacier approach is still skiable to the car.

 

Yesterday we climbed Mt. Hector and the same wind slabs were evident above treeline with a recent avalanche cycle up to size 2.5.  We had to be quite cautious on the steeper slopes below the summit pitch.  On the way down we were still able to ski all the way to the car without walking, though this will change soon. 

 

Also of interest was that some crevasses that were open 10 days ago when I was there, now appear to be bridged due to the recent wind and snow.

 

Enjoy the the sunny weather and spring skiing!

Conrad Janzen

ACMG Mountain Guide

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