The deluge that hit Banff/Canmore this week dissipates rapidly as you go west and north but it was still cloudy and drizzly. Just a few cms of new snow at upper elevations in the Icefields area. The lower part of the glacier up the steep tongue had only about 20 cm of snow over the ice. Higher up boot top foot penetration on the glacier, with HS deeper than my ski pole. On the snow covered rocky slopes leading to the ridge foot pen was deeper than that but the snowpack was only about 1 meter deep there.
Everywhere the entire snowpack was wet and weak and it seemed like it would only take a bit of warming to cause the bottom to fall out of it and if it did you would be breaststroking to get anywhere. I was hip deep on the descent a few times.
Lots of smaller loose snow avalanches with a few small slabs here and there. That didn't mean that I trusted stability very much.
Mark Klassen
Mountain Guide