| Guided the Wapta traverse March 16-21.
16th opted to ski into Bow Hut rather than Peyto given the avalanche cycle on the 12th and 13th. It seemed like a safer approach given the number of skiers who had been in and out on those days and the fact that many of the slopes that could be triggered had been triggered by them. We witnessed a size 2 avalanche release from about 7500 feet on the east aspect of Mt Jimmy Simpson at 11:00. The avalanche ran 3/4 of its path and was triggered by the sun. We got two settlement whumpfs when we left the set track, to ski around avalanche debris from the morraine, on the flats below Bow Hut.
17th we traversed to Peyto Hut through a white out and storm. Got one whumpf when we stepped off of the glacier below Peyto Hut. Winds sifted to the north overnight and blew strong at the ridgetops.
18th we switch backed up a wind scoured ridge on the SE end of Mt Rhonnda and traversed to the summit then skied down to Bow Hut. The skiing on the glacial tongue above the hut was great.
19th a clear day. Climbed Mt Olive and traversed to the Balfour hut. Lots of wind affect on the icefield, winds switched back to west/southwest.
20th traversed the high bench to Balfour High Col. Moderate west winds with strong gusts. The bottleneck slope between the nunatak and Mt Balfour was wind scoured with old skitracks elevated in some places. Crevasses are well bridged. The snow at the high col is wind sculpted and slow to ski, less wind affected the lower you go. Skied up a 9500 foot peak 1 km NE of Mt Daly after getting to the Scott Duncan Hut. Got a settlement at 9000 feet on the NW corner of the peak were the wind had layed in a thicker slab.
21st white out and moderate wind from the south. We skied out the Schiesser/Lomas exit with another guide party. A compression test on the edge of the large east facing slope below Mt Niles gave easy results (two taps from the wrist) on clean planar shears (sudden planar) 10 and 50 cms down -we chose not to cross this slope but skied down the valley bottom flats instead to about 8500 feet where we ascended an east facing slope to regain the Schiesser/Lomas bench (15 meters of boot packing). The first party up triggered a cornice which fractured but only slabbed its top 30 cms off. This triggered a size 1.5 slab from the 30 degree slope below. While traversing on shallow ground 100 meters higher a second size 1.5 was remotely triggered from a parallel slope of the same aspect and angle. We skied down the skier's left side of the bench here giving the corniced slopes on the right as wide a birth as possible. When we turned onto the south and west aspects we were pleased to find a supportive sun crust holding everything together. The rocket ride down to Wapta Lodge wasn't as fast as it could be given it was holding some new snow.
I'd rate the hazard in this drainage as High in the Alpine, Considerable at Treeline, and Moderate Below Treeline today, and advise not cutting across the slope below Mt Niles
Happy trails, Barry Blanchard Mountain Guide www.yamnuska.com
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