ACMG Mountain Conditions Summary for the Rockies and Columbia Mountains issued July 31st, 2008
The recent history- As of tuesday afternoon, conditions in the mountains were excellent. Tuesday night through Wednesday approximately 10-20 cms of snow fell along the divide in the Rockies and a bit less in the Columbias. Today, Thursday, was a clear cold day everywhere. Some melting occurred today in the Rockies and Columbias and with one more sunny day the alpine could be in fine shape again.
The forecast is for a bit of a cool grey weekend so it may not feel exactly like summer in the mountains. There will very likely be patches of verglas above treeline and snow up high, especially on the North faces. It will be a bit of a suffer-fest on places like the North face of Temple(I suppose it always is)but sunny alpine rock could be fun if the wind stays low. As we said last week, have a good look before committing to any of the big routes. Some are in excellent shape and others are still fairly buried in old snow and the frosting from Tuesday/Wednesday.
Classic ridges like Sir Donald, Victoria and Edith Cavell could be in good shape if we get a sunny day friday or saturday and no more precipitation.
By the standards of recent summers, snow and ice routes like Athabasca, Lefroy and Fay etc are in excellent condition for early august. Glacier travel conditions are also potentially very good if we get decent overnight freezes.
During the last warm spell there was a few scattered, worrisome avalanches to the glacial ice. These were all on steepish NE facing ice faces around the Lake Louise group. Most, but not all of them were triggered by cornice fall and/or rain. Perhaps it is not a concern given the forecast but if it gets warm, keep this info in mind.
If you are heading into the alpine, I would suggest bringing your woollies and lots of warm duds. I have been wearing way too many clothes the past three days walking uphill and never came close to breaking a sweat. It would be REALLY miserable spending a night outside in your cute little softshell and Capri's this weekend.
Be patient, summer is coming. Maybe in 2009.
Larry Stanier
Mountain Guide