[MCR] Whitewater / Mt. Ymir - West Kootenays

 

We had plans to climb Ymir Mountain yesterday, expecting some new snow up high but were a little surprised by the snowfall amounts. At 8:30am Snow line was down to ~1200m and the Whale's Back looked like good skiing.  The Whitewater parking lot had 25cm when it had been snow free on Tuesday and some locals were just finishing runs on Scob's Knob and runs in bounds.

 

 

The new snow came in quite low density but numerous moist point releases started once the sun hit things.

 

We abandoned our plans for Ymir and climbed up the north ridge on Half Dome instead.  Trail breaking was slow and arduous with knee to mid thigh deep postholing and 45cm of storm snow above 2000m.

 

Cornices were still large from previous events with the exception of the one above 1st Choice which had tumbled debris well into the runout.

 

On descent we easily got massive pinwheels rolling in the moist snow, some of which caused a 25m wide slide to run 150m down the Goat Slide Path on the firm winter snow interface. 

 

 

Cheers,

Shaun King  ACMG / UIAGM Mountain Guide

www.mountainsense.ca

www.facebook.com/mountainsense

 

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