Climbed Ursehole today. In terms of avalanche hazard from above, I felt comfortable climbing the route as Yesterday, I checked out Cascade mountain and was surprised to see less snow than I would have thought. Also the warm temps from last week has settled the snowpack and this latest cold spell has helped consolidate it for now, though the cold temps also caused some basal faceting that may haunt us later. The bowl above Ursehole had some old isolated sluffs that ran about 50-70 meters, they did not trigger anything else and probably occurred during the storm. I could not detect much wind effect in the bowl either and the summit ridge cornices are currently very small. Small surface hoar limited to below treeline. We had great conditions on Ursehole today and the pocket glacier from last seasons compressed avalanche debris is quite amazing, forming a large roof overhead. Ursehole direct unfortunately was extremely wet with fragile chandeliers. The left fork climb was excellent. Bolted anchors are still looking good though one of the chains is looking a bit rusty.
Happy Trails
Eric Dumerac-IFMGA/ACMG Mountain Guide
iceXperts.ca IGB guide bureau
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