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ACMG Mountain Conditions Summary for the Rockies
and Columbia Mountains issued July 31st, 2008
The recent history- As of tuesday afternoon,
conditions in the mountains were excellent. Tuesday night through
Wednesday approximately 10-20 cms of snow fell along the divide in the
Rockies and a bit less in the Columbias. Today, Thursday, was a clear cold
day everywhere. Some melting occurred today in the Rockies and Columbias
and with one more sunny day the alpine could be in fine
shape again.
The forecast is for a bit of a cool grey weekend so
it may not feel exactly like summer in the mountains. There will very
likely be patches of verglas above treeline and snow up high, especially on
the North faces. It will be a bit of a suffer-fest on places like the North face
of Temple(I suppose it always is)but sunny alpine rock could be fun if the wind
stays low. As we said last week, have a good look before committing to any
of the big routes. Some are in excellent shape and others are still fairly
buried in old snow and the frosting from Tuesday/Wednesday.
Classic ridges like Sir Donald, Victoria and Edith
Cavell could be in good shape if we get a sunny day friday or saturday and no
more precipitation.
By the standards of recent summers, snow and ice
routes like Athabasca, Lefroy and Fay etc are in excellent condition for early
august. Glacier travel conditions are also potentially very good if we get
decent overnight freezes.
During the last warm spell there was a few
scattered, worrisome avalanches to the glacial ice. These were all on steepish
NE facing ice faces around the Lake Louise group. Most, but not all of them
were triggered by cornice fall and/or rain. Perhaps it is not a concern given
the forecast but if it gets warm, keep this
info in mind.
If you are heading into the alpine, I would suggest
bringing your woollies and lots of warm duds. I have been wearing way too many
clothes the past three days walking uphill and never came close to breaking a
sweat. It would be REALLY miserable spending a night outside in your cute little
softshell and Capri's this weekend.
Be patient, summer is coming. Maybe in
2009.
Larry Stanier
Mountain Guide
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