Hi all,
We just finished a fun ski touring week at Sorcerer Lodge. We
had mix of sun & clouds with good visibility and benefited from a mostly
stable snowpack. The combination allowed us to ski a variety of steeper terrain
in the alpine and tags a few summits. During the week we climbed the Escargot, the
West summit of Nordic mountain and Perfect Peak. We also made it to 2750m on
Merlyn peak and 3100m on Iconoclast. Ski conditions were overall pretty good
considering the lack of recent new snow. We got 5cm of new snow over the week.
This overlies a previous melt freeze crust below 2300m and a variety of
surfaces above. Much wind affect and wind slab building took place in the
alpine due to moderate to strong winds from the Northwest. That being said, we
could still find protected areas of good powder snow above 2300m on north and
east facing terrain.
The snowpack was 200cm at the lodge elevation (2030m) and
generally over 300cm on the glaciers. Travelling conditions were quite good
with minimal ski penetration above 2300m. Below this the breakable crust made
it possible to build benched up-tracks. The most challenging travel areas were
found in previous re-crystalized tracks and through old avalanche debris. That
said all travel was manageable without ski or boot crampons. Our main concerns
during the week were fresh wind slabs, cornice exposure and crevasses. We saw
several natural slab avalanches to size 2 during the week but all were located
in extreme alpine terrain. Cornices were relatively small for the time of year
and we did not see any new failures. The glaciers had many large open crevasses
however most routes including the traverse of the angels were passable.
A great week for glacier skiing and peak bagging!
Cheers,
David Lussier, mountain guide
Judson Wright, apprentice ski guide
www.summitmountainguides.com
