[MCR] More Wapta

Skied in the Wapta area April 12-16.  Peyto-Bow-Balfour-Bow and out to Bow
Lake.
The morraines climbing up to Peyto glacier were still mostly  covered in
hard packed snow. Boot packing was the easiest way to climb up.
We saw lots of slab avalanches from the storm about a week ago on various
aspects all over between the Peyto and Balfour Hut area.
Some released naturally, some were triggered by cornice or serac fall. We
also noted many point releases on sunny aspects that step down
to deeper layers and released decent size slab avalanches. On thinner
spots around morrainal features some 'whumpf' sounds confirmed the  still
unstable layering of the snowpack.

Again I had to turn away from Balfour High Col. Still large open and some
barely covered cravesses, serac and cornice fall, and still the potential
of skier triggering the deeper unstable layers was beyond our risk
tolerance, even though it was a blue bird day and other un-guided
parties decided to take the risk (or were not aware of it). See picture in
previous Wapta posting.

Enjoy the spring

Thomas Exner
Mountain Guide, IFMGA, ACMG
www.ontopmountaineering.com
(403) 678 2717

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