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ACMG Mountain Conditions Summary for the Rockies
and Columbia Mountains issued July 19th, 2007.
After a snowy start, it is now definetly
summer in the alpine. The past two weeks have seen, for me, an unprecedented
melt. It would be safe to say that "most" ice faces below 3350m are snow free or
at least have lots of bare ice. The only exceptions would be on some very high
and sheltered east and north faces thatt get huge windloading during the winter.
Expect bare ice on glaciers and enjoy any snow you find. Areas with
snowpacks below 1 meter(boulderfields and glacial toes) generally make
for poor travel except after a good freeze. Areas with over a 1
meter snowpack(old avalanche debris, drifts and sheltered glaciers) have
mostly been providing excellent travel all day.
Avalanche activity has been mostly limited
to loose and wet point releases. These would still blow you off your feet
and are often packing some rocks just to make sure they have stand a fair chance
of killing you. We have had no observations from above 3700m so I wouldn't
assume I know anything about the snow conditions if I was heading somewhere
really high like Robson or Clemenceau.
The big alpine ridges like Victoria, Edith Cavell,
Sir Donald and Assiniboine are drying off very nicely. Big alpine rock
routes like Howse Pk. Temple N face, South Howser-Becky Chouinard are
getting close to being almost as dry as they get.
Mixed routes such as the Andromeda Strain and Edith
Cavell N Face would be really bad ideas right now. I imagine the rockfall on the
N face of Edith Cavell is horrendous. Any ice faces that still have
snowcover "may" at times have large volumes of water running on
them.
There has been some very intense evening storms in
the past few days across the ranges. Huge hailstorms and 10 hrs of
lightning in Canmore. Roads washed out by mudslides in the Bugaboos and
Yoho. These events are not forecasted to persist but we should take it
as a reminder of how awful it would be to be stuck up high in a REAL
thunderstorm and how weird things can become in the mountains when we have huge
rainstorms. It is a great time to be in the mountains but keep your eyes and
your mind open..
Larry Stanier
Mountain Guide
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