Mountain Conditions Summary for the Rockies and Columbia Mountains, issued June 10th, 2006.
Mountain travel conditions are generally more like we would expect for early july than mid june. Widespread snowcover begins around 2700m(9000ft) and the whole snowpack up to at least 3350m(11,000ft) has undergone numerous melt freeze cycles and is in late spring/early summer condition. We have no recent reports from above 3350m(11,000ft) but I would suspect it is still feels like winter high on all but the south sides of Mt. Robson, Clemenceau, Columbia etc.
Access and approach trails for the Bugaboos, Rogers Pass, Lake Louise group, Columbia Icefields etc are generally in good condition. Rivers and creeks are still high and there may be lots of unrepaired trail damage from the winter but snow should not be a big issue, outside of old avalanche deposits, below 2500m's.
Alpine rock routes on all except North faces and especially east of the divide in the Rockies are in good early season conditions. Some examples would be from Castle Mtn east to Yamnuska in the Bow Valley, the Colin range in Jasper, Mt Tupper and Macdonald west face in Rogers Pass and Snowpatch and Marmolata in the Bugaboos. These should all dry out quickly if and when the rain stops.
Examples of routes still buried in snow would be the East Ridge of Edith Cavell, North face of Mt. Temple, NW arete on Sir Donald, and the NE ridge of Bugaboo spire.
Glacier travel and snow and ice climbing conditions are generally poor for this weekend due to the present warm and wet pacific storm. Condition will remain poor until we get back into a period of colder temperatures. As long as we don't get any signifigant new snow out of this storm, snow conditions could quickly become excellent with one good cold, clear night. However, we can still expect another cycle of falling cornices, failing snow bridges, wet snow avalanches and rockfall when the alpine snowpack next meets the afternoon heat under a hot june sun.
Larry Stanier
Mountain Guide