ACMG Mountain Conditions Summary for the Rockies and Columbia Mountains issued October 11th, 2007.
Over the past three days conditions seemed to have become quite variable across the ranges. Generally warm temperatures have helped settle the snowpack somewhat but there was dramatic variations in sunshine, wind and wednesday afternoon precipitation between Lake Louise, the Icefields and the interior.
There were very strong winds along the Lake Louise Divide on Tuesday/Wednesday. Very little snow was being moved around but there may be some hard surface windslabs in places. In 3 days of great visibility I saw no avalanche activity in the O'Hara, Lake Louise area except for some small wet slides out of steep rocks in the afternoon sun. However three recent, large avalanches were reported in the Columbia icefields area. One was 100m wide by 50 cms deep below the bergschrund on the N face of Athabasca. There was a Size 1.5 slab on the toe of the Boundary Glacier. The other was the largest of the three and started around 3000m on a NE aspect.
The snowpack in the Columbias is reported to contain a number of crusts and soggy layers from recent scattered rain events. Last weekends great skiing is a thing of the past except perhaps on very high elevation North faces. I am fairly certain that the skiing got severely ravaged by the wind all over the Rockies.
Glacier travel conditions have probably changed very little.also. The new snowbridges may gain a little strength if we get a cold clear night, but they are still relatively thin, new and hard to read. "Spooky" said one eloquent report. There is a very good chance that between the drifting and the crust the snow walking may be "character building" in some places.
There is some fairly good looking alpine waterfall ice above 2600m's as of yesterday afternoon. Be very cautious with the warm temperatures forecasted for this weekend. Soft ice and wet avalanches would be my concerns. If you think you found a place free of avalanche hazard, at least bring rock gear to keep you lashed to something solid. On Monday there was climbable ice formed on Sad and Beautiful World at 2100m's and all along the Icefield's Parkway. Except for high North facing routes like Riptide all that ice melted away in one warm Tuesday.
Given the weather forecast and the current conditions, a sunny mid elevation rock route such as Castle or Yamnuska may be fun if there isn't a breath of wind. Some of the best conditions sound like they may be in the Jasper Front ranges.
Don't shoot the messenger!
Larry Stanier
Mountain Guide