Mountain Conditions Summary for the Rockies and Interior Ranges. Issued september 15th, 2006.
Winter arrived with a wet slap in the face early Wednesday morning. Most areas have reported at least 20cms of snow above 2500m's and at even lower elevations in Rogers Pass and the Lake O'Hara area. Approximately 10cms on the highway at the Columbia icefields and in Icefall Brook. The big winner is the Conrad Kain hut in the Bugaboos with around 1 meter of wet storm snow as of this morning.
Winds were variable but lots of snow was moving around and we should assume big fresh windslabs are just waiting for a trigger up high. The storm came in with light winds so it is quite possible there is a layer of soft snow on top of the rock, ice and dirt and hard slabs above that in lots of places. I had to walk carefully around a big fat pillow well over 1m deep 10m's wide and 30m's long just below Abbotts Pass hut yesterday and it was spooky. The consequences of a ride in an avalanche right now would be very nasty. Lots of rocks to hit and open crevasses and bergschrunds to be stuffed into.
Glacier travel will most likely be poor this weekend. Conditions were as dry as I have ever seen by Tuesday, september 5th. Enough snow fell to cover crevasses but it will not settle in time to show where they are or to make effective bridges.
Alpine rockclimbing is probably a write-off for the weekend. I have 20cms of wet snow in my yard in Canmore at 11am so I can't imagine even Yamnuska will be dry any time soon.
To complete this cheery picture, count on a ugly period of rockfall if this snow melts significantly on Sunday and Monday.
Larry Stanier
Mountain Guide