[MCR] Coast Range - Garibaldi Neve - April 25th to May 1st

Chris Lawrence and I returned today (Sunday) from guiding a ski mountaineering course for 7 days on the Garibaldi Neve. We started from Rubble Creek April 25^th and ended at Diamond Head May 1st.

 

Access

The road is not plowed to the summer parking lot at Rubble Creek. We parked at the winter plowing line marked on the Garibaldi Park map. We were able to skin up to the summer parking lot, then boot packed up patchy snow to around 800m elevation where we put on our skis. Garibaldi Lake was still very frozen, with no indication of any problems crossing it soon. At Rubble Creek, two of our 3 cars were found with smashed windows and stolen gear on return (including my 1L tub of vegemite!).  Skiing out to the Diamond Head parking lot was well covered.

 

New Snow

New storm snow was observed from 20-35cm depending on elevation and aspect.

 

Avalanches

No significant avalanches were observed. Our main concern was wind slabs near ridge top as we encountered strong winds on Wednesday April 27^th from the South, then switching to West overnight. These were observed up to 70cm deep. The sun did not have much effect on the snowpack during the week.

 

Glaciers

Glaciers were well generally well covered, with 300cm probed at the toe of the Sphinx Glacier. The bergshrund on Mt Garibaldi’s NE Face was very large. We opted to cross it on the climbers left due to concerns with wind slabs on the right. While skiing down over the bergshrund, I ski cut a small size 1 wind slab that was enough to break the bridge and further open up the bergshrund.

 

Snow conditions

Snow was still wintery above 2200m on northerly aspects on April 29^th. By May 1^st we found a supportable crust below the Elfin Shelter that was beginning to soften, so I would expect corn skiing can now be found.

Alex Geary (ACMG Assistant Ski Guide, Assistant Rock Guide)
Chris Lawrence (ACMG Mountain Guide)

_______________________________________________
These observations and opinions are those of the person who submitted them. The 
ACMG and its members take no responsibility for errors, omissions, or lapses in 
continuity. Conditions differ greatly over time and space due to the variable 
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.