We went ski touring in Commonwealth Creek (Little Commonwealth Traverse) on Sunday Dec 4.
Looks like the area has seen a fair bit of travel lately, inspite of the fact that the snow depth in the trees is rather skimpy (around 40 – 60cm of faceted snow) and hitting rocks and deadfall is unavoidable. Temps between -16C (at departure at 10AM) warming up to -10C at return to the car at 3PM with the front approaching, which brought about 5 cm 12 hour snow to Canmore today.
Snow pack in the alpine and at tree line was very wind affected and we managed to kick off some very small, hard wind slabs, which went on facets above of a melt freeze crust. The melt-freeze crust itself is loosing strength due to faceting with the cool temps lately. However, no recent naturals observed.
Let’s hope for more snow!
Jorg Wilz
Mountain Guide IFMGA / UIAGM