Just back from a week at the icefall lodge area in the western
Rockies, west of the Lyells. We arrived at an interesting time on
January 6th just after a cycle which seemed to show some results in
isolated areas viewed from flight in. Most of the activity was at
lower elevations with some isolated paths running to valley bottom in
the drainage of the hut. Our tests showed some moderate tests in the
upper pack which tightened up over the week. These were mostly in the
upper 40cm of the snow pack
Though visibility wasn't great all week we did not observe any slabs
activity in any of our travels on any adjacent slopes. We were pretty
cautious over the week not really pushing the terrain and using safe
travel. In shallow areas faceting was evident with one settlement
noted on a SE aspect near some rocks.
The snowpack at 1900 metres at the lodge was 160cm. We had about
10-15cm over the week with almost no wind affect anywhere. the
temperatures were very steady all week at around -10 to -15 with
little to no sun affect over the days. Some sluffing on steep terrain
was noted from some low density snow, and in the top 10-15cm, mostly
the last few days
Things would have been much different if we had any wind!.
See reports over the last week it seems like we were in a pretty
sheltered little part of the mountains.
Peter Amann
Peter Amann
Mountain Guiding
Box 1495, Jasper AB, T0E 1E0
780 852 3237
cell 780 931 2521
www.incentre.net/pamann/
pamann@xxxxxxxxxxxx
_______________________________________________
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nature of mountain weather and terrain. Application of this information
provides no guarantee of increased safety. Do not use the Mountain Conditions
Report as the sole factor in planning trips or making decisions in the field.
Please check out http://acmg.ca/mcr for more information.
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