March 17th we skied into the Peyto hut, of note were several whumpfing settlements as I crossed a runout zone on an east aspect, 6700 feet, 1 km east of Cauldron Lake.
Day tripped from Peyto Hut on the 18th, a size 2.5 slab off of the East Face of Mt Baker, 10,000 feet (extreme terraine) and a heavy wind loaded look kept us away from the ridgelines -we skied down from a high point 150 meters below Baker col on one run not wanting to go all the way to the col.
Got lucky with the visibility on March 21st (the day for my dark glasses) and traveled over the Balfour High Col via the upper bench. The upper bench looks like the way to go right now as it keeps one on shallower slopes with little concern for the well bridged crevasses. No evidence of avalanches running onto the bench. Boot top trail breaking for us. Lots of wind effect above 9000 feet then fields of undisturbed surface hoar on the icefield leading to the Scott Duncan hut. 4 cms of new snow, calm winds, at the hut Saturday nignt.
Light wind out of the east Sunday morning. Skied out the Schiesser/Lomas exit on a supportive sun crust from Niles Peak. Some cornice activated slabs to size 2, then a number of slabs to 2.5 out on all aspects -evidence of the recent cycle. One of the east facing gulleys off of Mt Ogden ran to within 50 meters of Sherbrooke Lake, fast and far?
Happy trails
Barry Blanchard
UIAGM/IFMGA Mountain Guide
Yamnuska Mountain Adventures