ACMG Mountain Conditions Summary for the Rockies and Columbia Mountains issued October 2nd, 2008
It has been a lovely week in the Mountains. The warm weather has helped settle the snow a bit in most places, but winter still rules above 3000m's.
Glacier travel is mostly pretty good but as is often the case in the fall, crevasse are poorly bridged and may be difficult to read, especially in shady places.
Rock climbing is still good on the east slope of the Rockies and lower elevations in the Columbias. Above 2800m expect snow anywhere shady and maybe some verglas after the heat wave.
Alpine ice could be coming around quite nicely. Cooler temps for the weekend could help tighten up some of the water ice and keep the rockfall fairly quiet.
Classic alpine routes such as Victoria, Sir Donald, Edith Cavell and everything in the Bugaboos would take a fairly solid and speedy team to do them comfortably in a day. The snow will slow people down and the days are getting mighty short. It would be a long cold night in an unplanned bivy in early October.
Larry Stanier
ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide