committing to the final slope before the col. Skied down to the valley
bottom and continued up and onto Crowfoot Glacier before deciding to
call it quits for the day.
Weather: started calm with broken skies, deteriorating early in the day.
>>From about 10:00 am onwards skies were overcast and wind was blowing
strong from the west. Major redistribution of the recent storm snow,
which I am guessing was around 20 cm but for the most part is now either
in Saskatchewan or in big pillows on lee slopes and cross-loaded
gullies. Temps were mild throughout the day (-6 to -1 C). Once again the
weather forecast, which called for light SW winds, was wrong... although
I've been used to getting better weather than forecast over the past few
weeks!
Snowpack: 75-100 cm at treeline and facetted/bottomless in sheltered
areas with 10-20 cm of slabbing storm snow on top. Windward slopes (e.g.
Crowfoot moraines) are either bare or rock hard. Lee slopes were loading
quickly as we retreated, and highly reactive to ski cutting (several
results in the 0.5 size), and I "accidentally" triggered a sz 0.5 (8-10
cm deep, 10 m wide, ran 15 m -- as I deaked out of the main gully and
back onto the "bench" on the way down). Crowfoot moraines/glacier, as
one might expect (it's NW facing), is totally scoured. Travel was mainly
good, skiing quality ranged from good (not much) to fair (hard windslab,
facets).
Hazards: Cornices are a big hazard right now -- the ones overhanging the
south side (climber's right) of the Crowfoot moraines/glacier drainage
were growing rapidly and one collapsed sometime today bringing down a
few refrigerator-sized rocks with it.
Regards,
Tom Wolfe
AG
_______________________________________________
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