[MCR] Accident on Guinness

There was a fatal accident on Guinness today. There are still at least 8
screws and draws on the third pitch and a rope stashed near the top of the
second pitch ( I did not see it). We did not have time to retrieve this
gear as we were responding to a second incident at the same time. If
anyone is climbing there in the next few days and you feel like returning
this gear to the owners, please drop it off at one of the warden offices
attention my name. The owners will be appreciative.

Thank you,

Marc Ledwidge
Manager, Mountain Safety Programs
Banff, Yoho and Kootenay National Parks
220 Hawk Avenue
Box 900, Banff, AB
T1L 1K2
Ph: 403-762-1401

_______________________________________________
These observations and opinions are those of the person who submitted them. The ACMG and its members take no responsibility for errors, omissions, or lapses in continuity. Conditions differ greatly over time and space due to the variable nature of mountain weather and terrain. Application of this information provides no guarantee of increased safety. Do not use the Mountain Conditions Report as the sole factor in planning trips or making decisions in the field.
Please check out http://acmg.ca/mcr for more information.

[MCR] Selkirks March 22-27

We've still been skiing in the Selkirks the past several days.

March 22-24 was in the Valkyr Range, about halfway between Nakusp and
Nelson. Before we got there, there had been some recent significant
events in the surrounding mountains. A Sr 2.5 on an alpine lee aspect,
probably on the Feb 26 surface hoar; and a partial burial (one hand
showing) in a size 2 on a treeline SE aspect, probably on the March 8
surface hoar (dug out in minutes). This second avalanche was
interesting in that I'm pretty sure that slope had run previously, on
the Feb 26 surface hoar.

We tread carefully whenever we were close to large open features
(basically staying away), but we did travel over steep terrain in the
trees (30-35+ degrees, both up and down) with no whumpfs or cracking.
We dug at about 1800 m in the trees and just got broken results on the
two surface hoar layers. There was a wind event on Sunday and Monday
morning and after that we saw a size 2 slab out of steep lee terrain
in the alpine (probably storm snow) and we ski cut a couple of size 1
windslabs in the storm snow on steep rolls at treeline. On our flight
out on Monday afternoon we did not see any other activity.

March 26-27 was in Rogers Pass, Bonney Moraines the first day and Balu
Pass the second day. Although there had been wind on the weekend and
continued moderate winds overnight Wednesday, there was minimal wind
effect in these areas although Balu was a bit punchy at the top.
Obvious wind effect elsewhere in the Connaught drainage. Path 6 off
Cheops (the last major bowl feature before Balu Pass) has run
recently, size 3 to the valley bottom.

Excellent skiing everywhere we went!

Mark Klassen
ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide

_______________________________________________
These observations and opinions are those of the person who submitted them. The ACMG and its members take no responsibility for errors, omissions, or lapses in continuity. Conditions differ greatly over time and space due to the variable nature of mountain weather and terrain. Application of this information provides no guarantee of increased safety. Do not use the Mountain Conditions Report as the sole factor in planning trips or making decisions in the field.
Please check out http://acmg.ca/mcr for more information.

[MCR] Mt. Hector

Mike Stuart and I climbed Mt. Hector today.  The slopes below the waterfall have seen a fair amount of old activity.  The moraines on the approach are in their usual moonscape condition with thin snowpack but reasonable travelling.  The glacier coverage ranges from 70 cm to 225 cm and the average depth in the trough of the glacier is about 200cm.  On the upper slopes towards the summit block the coverage is almost nil with lots of bare ice and some open crevasses.  Boot crampons proved useful.  Ski quality on the glacier was very good.

 

Marc Ledwidge

Mountain Guide

[MCR] Selkirks - Rogers Pass

We've been skiing in Rogers Pass for the past 4 days, with one more
day to go tomorrow.

We've been in Bonney Trees, Dome Glacier, Mushroom People, Little
Sifton-Hermit Traverse, Illecillewaet glacier and Lookout Col.

The Feb 26 surface hoar has been observed down 75 cm and March 8
surface hoar down 30-40. We have observed variable shears on these
layers.

We remotely triggered a size 1 slab in the Hermit area yesterday, SE
aspect at 2200m, 35 cm thick. Suspected failure layer was March 8
surface hoar on a crust. Other than that we haven't seen any recent
avalanches although there have been reports of a couple of other size
1-2 slabs.

Weather has been mixed sun and intense flurries with poor visibility
at times. Typical March.

Mark Klassen
ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide

_______________________________________________
These observations and opinions are those of the person who submitted them. The ACMG and its members take no responsibility for errors, omissions, or lapses in continuity. Conditions differ greatly over time and space due to the variable nature of mountain weather and terrain. Application of this information provides no guarantee of increased safety. Do not use the Mountain Conditions Report as the sole factor in planning trips or making decisions in the field.
Please check out http://acmg.ca/mcr for more information.

[MCR] Bear Spirit and Super Bock

HI all,

 

Bear Spirit (yesterday) ice and mixed crag has lots of great ice, not too wet, and most mixed lines except for a couple in the middle are still in good condition.

-------

Super Bock(today), on Mt. Stephen, is in great shape. Truly one of the best WI5 routes in the range and in my opinion the best route in all the Field area. It has nice plastic ice throughout, again not too wet, and deserves a good solid WI5.

 

As with many ice routes this time of year, I wouldn’t want to be on this one with the temperatures above freezing as there is overhead hazard. It is a good idea to check the forecasted temps, take a thermometer to check in on the progression of warming throughout the day, and get off the route as early in the day as possible.

 

Cheers,

 

 

Rob Owens

ACMG Alpine guide

[MCR] Ice Climbing, Lake Louise & Field - Cool Spring / Masseys / Louise Falls

For any of you guys out there that haven't put the ice tools away quite yet...

Spent yesterday on Cool Spring and Masseys in Field, and then up Louise Falls today.

There's still a bit of a trail broken up to Cool Spring. We walked up sporadic patches of old avi debris in the gulley on the way up, but the amount of debris underfoot left me thinking that it probably hasn't totally cleaned itself out up above.
There's a great line that goes right up the middle that has managed to stay dry, but it's a bit techy and a bit of a jaunt between good screws. The left and right sides are both chandeliered and super wet. Could be a bit easier right now than what the guidebook has it at.

Massey's has got a bunch of really good lines left and the the ice is still in great shape. On the first pitch, there's a WI3 line on the very far left side and just about the whole rest of the way across is one giant WI4 pegboard. There's also some refrigerator size blocks laying at the base on the right side of the route, and a few more still hanging right overhead that look ready to fall off.
 
Louise Falls is in good shape too, the daggers hanging over the right side of the route are still pretty spooky, but you can still pick a pretty good line up the left to avoid them, and then cut back over to the right for the belay at the base of the pillar. Not too, many hooks on the pillar - you have to actually do a bit of swinging and good ice the rest of the way up.

 Enjoy what's left of the season! 


 
Mike Trehearne
ARG

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[MCR] Polar Circus and Hydrophobia

Hello

 

Climbed Polar Circus on Saturday.  Busy route with 5 people on it before 530AM!  Good to see people getting early starts on big south facing routes.  Route itself is in ok shape.  Some of the bottom pitches will be melting out soon and the last pitch was difficult for the grade as extensive cleaning was required.  Snow slope felt ok crossing it in the shade both on the way up and down.  It would be a different story if it was baking in the sun...

 

Climbed Hydro yesterday.  Drive in through Waiparous was nice and frozen all the way, easy in a normal truck.  Route has seen a bit of traffic and is quite hooky, felt classic grade 5.  The road was melting a bit on the way out at 3pm causing some of the deeper ruts to become problematic.  Could be an issue in upcoming days if it stays warm and sunny.

 

Spent last week around Assiniboine trying to climb the peak but the late February surface hoar shut us down.  We found this layer up to 2800 metres in the area, and gave it major respect in our terrain choices.

 

Stay safe and have fun!

 

Cheers

 

 

Mike Stuart
Alpine Guide

[MCR] Bow Valley Ice Conditions (March 16)

The following is a report on late season ice conditions for the Bow
Valley area from my past week of guiding (March 10-16). The end of the
season is rapidly nearing for lower elevation ice climbs. My main
observation is the regular occurrence of natural rock fall as the sun
and warm temperatures affect melt snow and lubricate overhead scree
slopes.

Louise Falls: It is still blue but the pillar itself is seeing sun-
affect and getting a bit bleached. Sun is hitting it at 11:30 am when
it pops up over Mt Fairview. The main hazard is the abundance of BIG
hanging daggers on either side of the pillar itself. Limit exposure to
them, especially belay stances (I've witnessed folks setting up belays
right under them on the second pitch) or maybe just go somewhere else
if it is either really cold (brittle pillars bad) or really warm and
sunny (direct sun on pillars bad). The hanging dagger of the mixed
route, Captain Hook, is growing thus threatening the usual gear-up
spot under the rock overhang on the right.

Haffner Creek: Random spontaneous rock fall as the sun bakes the scree
slopes above the climbs. The mixed routes are delaminating with lots
of water flowing over the rock. Beware of prying thawed holds off.

Coire Dubh: The Integral to the top was in great shape last week but
as of this morning, the rock is freshly caked in 10cm of snow so we
only climbed the lower ice. I'd avoid both the lower ice and Integral
for a couple days because as the snow melts it will surely generate
rock fall from the numerous scree-covered ledges.

Grotto Canyon: Hers is white and sun-leached. The mixed routes are
close to being done as the rock is soaked and the ice is rotted. A
couple grapefruit-sized rocks fell from the top of the big cliff above
His and Hers missing a couple of folks at the base by less than a meter.

Sean Isaac
Assistant Alpine Guide

_______________________________________________
These observations and opinions are those of the person who submitted them. The ACMG and its members take no responsibility for errors, omissions, or lapses in continuity. Conditions differ greatly over time and space due to the variable nature of mountain weather and terrain. Application of this information provides no guarantee of increased safety. Do not use the Mountain Conditions Report as the sole factor in planning trips or making decisions in the field.
Please check out http://acmg.ca/mcr for more information.

[MCR] Rockies - Observation SubPeak

Observation SubPeak redux today. We went up the south ridge where we found wind crust and sun crust of variable thickness and strength, mostly breakable but sometimes hard enough for us to find it difficult to get an edge in. There were occasional pockets of hard slab that were easily avoided.

The north glacier had good dust on crust skiing. We skied a mellow line so didn't bother to look to see if the surface hoar was there.

We descended the west face of the col between the subpeak and the main peak of Observation. We walked down rocks most of the way until we could gain lower angle slopes. OK skiing through treeline and fast through the trees back to the road.

Mark Klassen

Mountain Guide

[MCR] Howsons 11 March 08

Temperatures rose to 4 degrees during a short period mid-day at the
lodge. In the evening, they dropped back to -1 degree and strong NW
winds sprang up. It snowed all day. We found about 40 cm of new snow in
the alpine and 5 mm of water equivalent at the lodge level. The freezing
level was at about 1300 m.

Many small and medium sized avalanches ran naturally during the hottest
part of the day. They were confined to the top layers of the snowpack,
but ran far, if slowly. They all started below 1400 m. Yesterday I cut a
size 1.5 on a steep forest glade at 1400 m and was carried about 20 m by
it. Today, I cut more size 1.5s in steep terrain below 1300m. We also
felt two whumpfs.

There seems to be a big divide at the freezing level: above it, the new
snow is stiff and cohesive and settles fast. Below it, the new snow is
less cohesive, but it does propagate and run easily. With the current
amount of new snow, I am concerned about larger natural avalanches
releasing, but we saw little evidence of that today. The visibility was
limited.

--
Christoph Dietzfelbinger
IFMGA/ UIAGM Mountain Guide - Bear Mountaineering and the Burnie Glacier Chalet
Box 4222 Smithers, B.C. V0J 2N0 Canada
tel. 250-847-3351/ fax 250-847-2854
info@bearmountaineering.ca www.bearmountaineering.ca

_______________________________________________
These observations and opinions are those of the person who submitted them. The ACMG and its members take no responsibility for errors, omissions, or lapses in continuity. Conditions differ greatly over time and space due to the variable nature of mountain weather and terrain. Application of this information provides no guarantee of increased safety. Do not use the Mountain Conditions Report as the sole factor in planning trips or making decisions in the field.
Please check out http://acmg.ca/mcr for more information.

[MCR] Blasting @ Yamnuska

LaFarge will be doing a blasting operation at Yamnuska Bluffs area on Friday March 14^th around the noon hour.

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[MCR] Crowfoot Pass, Rockies

Hello,

 

Went for a tour up to Crowfoot pass yesterday. Student dug profiles at about 7000' at the edge of tree line showed the surface hoar well preserved (1cm) down about 25-30cm. Compression tests gave very easy to easy results in this wind loaded area. Surprisingly no settlements were observed through out the day.

 

Keep your heads up!

 

Jesse de Montigny

Yamnuska Inc

ACMG Ski Guide

ACMG Assistant Alpine Guide

[MCR] Rogers Pass, March 1-8th, 2008

Just back from a fantastic week of skiing in the Pass based in the Asulkan Hut and Glacier Park Lodge!

 

Tours:  Skied in the Asulkan Trees, Sapphire Col, the Dome, Young's Peak, Lookout Peak, and Loop Brook/Lilly Glacier.

 

Weather:

35cm of new snow early in the week with light winds and cool temperatures, then clear for the past 4 days and warmer temperatures.

 

Snowpack:

Main concerns in the areas we skied were daytime heating on solar aspects, and the late Feb surface hoar layer down 60-80cm.  In the areas we skied this Feb layer seemed intermittent and generally produced hard, non-planar results which was great, however the potential does remain to get surprised by it.

 

Good coverage on all the glaciers with over 350cm of snow where we traveled.  Some wind effect up high beginning Thurs/Friday. Sun crust on solar aspects. Moist snow below 1500m on all aspects.

 

Avalanche Activity:

Some small slabs in the storm early in the week, then lots of sluffing from solar heating later in the week on southerly aspects.  We had one small, steep, roll fail on the Feb surface hoar at treeline early in the week as we stopped above it, but we did not observe any other activity on this layer.

 

It seems that in these drainages the Feb surface hoar was less reactive than areas not far away, but we did a lot of snow investigation to confirm this and the potential for surprises should not be eliminated from the picture.

 

Great skiing!!

Cheers, Conrad Janzen
IFMGA Mountain Guide
403.678.8336(cell)// 403.760.0887(home)

A person should have wings to carry them where their dreams go, but sometimes a pair of skis makes a good substitute. -Hans Gmoser-

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[MCR] Selkirks/Kootenays - Valkyr Lodge

I've been skiing in the Valkyrs south of Nakusp this week. We have two widespread persistent layers in the upper snowpack, a graupel layer buried 25-45 cm deep, and the Feb 26 surface hoar is 30-60 cm deep. We have had moderate sudden shears on these layers until today when we saw them tighten to hard resistant on a north aspect at 1960m. There has only been spotty avalanche activity, some lee and crossloaded slopes avalanched last  Monday during a snow and wind event, up to size 2. Then mid-week when it got hot (+3.5 with intense solar radiation) there were a few more size 2 slabs releasing on solar affected slopes. There was lots of whumpfing and cracking when it was hot, but nothing today.

We are still treating these layers with a lot of respect and using small, lower consequence terrain although we have ventured onto slopes in the 35 degree range. Definitely staying away from the big stuff though. 

Mark Klassen

Mountain Guide

[MCR] Canmore Junk Yards in the days of the heat

Went to the Junk Yards today while temps rose to +10C in Canmore. As often in warm weather, conditions were surprisingly good and dry. The steeper sections and curtains are all well climbable. The sun dissappeared around noon time and made a short appearance again in the afternoon (after it comes out of hiding behind Ha Ling peak).

 

Enjoy the spring!

 

Jorg Wilz 

 

Mountain Guide (ACMG / IFMGA)

OnTop ltd.

1-800 506-7177 or (001) 403 678 2717

www.ontopmountaineering.com

 

[MCR] Wicked Wanda, The Ghost (Mar 4)

Wicked Wanda, The Ghost, Canadian Rockies (Tuesday, March 28)

5 cm of new snow overnight in the Ghost. No drifting yet but it could
get deep if the wind starts blowing.

Spray Lake Sawmill is still hauling logs out of the 6 km spur road. If
you have a VHF radio (simplex frequency 161.610) then use it so you
don't get squashed. If no radio, then it might be prudent to wait at
the beginning of the Trans Alta Road and follow a truck in. The hill
just after the 3 km blue bridge is getting icy. The loggers keep
throwing dirt on it for traction but I witnessed a truck sliding
backwards out-of-control last week at this spot.

Wicked Wanda is in good shape with nice hooks the whole way. Someone
recently retrofitted the top anchor (left side) with a shiny Fixe
chain / ring set-up. The middle anchor in the cave on the left could
use the same love. The old self-drive / flexing-fixed-pin combo
doesn't inspire confidence and good anchor screws to back it up are
hard to find.

Sean Isaac
Assistant Alpine Guide

_______________________________________________
These observations and opinions are those of the person who submitted them. The ACMG and its members take no responsibility for errors, omissions, or lapses in continuity. Conditions differ greatly over time and space due to the variable nature of mountain weather and terrain. Application of this information provides no guarantee of increased safety. Do not use the Mountain Conditions Report as the sole factor in planning trips or making decisions in the field.
Please check out http://acmg.ca/mcr for more information.

[MCR] Rockies - Little Crowfoot again

Up on Little Crowfoot again yesterday March 1.

10-15 cm of snow in the parking lot, -3.5 at mid-day although it felt warmer during the sunny periods of the day, moderate to strong westerly winds at ridgetop transporting snow. Lots of evidence of wind effect. 

A couple of whumpfs in thin areas in the moraines. One whumpf and a 12 m long shooting crack at treeline in a thin area (50 cm): storm snow soft wind slab over facets. Other than that a surprising lack of avalanche activity considering the reports of the widespread surface hoar now buried by the storm snow. We saw one size 2 avalanche on an east aspect in the alpine, on the S ridge of Bow Peak, looked like a thin windslab.

Good skiing in wind press on Crowfoot but I wonder if that has set up into a crust now...

Mark Klassen

Mountain Guide