I attempted to get to Balfour High Col on Sunday March 14. The previous day there had been an avalanche cycle. In addition to the avalanches in the Bow Hut environs there had been a size 2.5 off the east face of Olive, a few size 1.5's in the moraines in the Balfour Hut area and numerous size 2-2.5's off the east face of Mt Balfour.
With low expectations we started off on the high line, beginning far looker's right in the low angle moraines and traversing the edge of the glacier below the east face at about 2500 m, planning on dropping from there to the low line below the crevasse fields. A size 2 cornice fall off the north ridge of Balfour, another wind loading triggered size 1.5 in the moraines, 50 cm of wind deposited storm snow on the glacier, wind loading on Balfour, strong solar radiation on sheltered slopes, isolated whumpfing in the moraines, a "pop" shear down 60 cm on surface hoar after two taps in a compression test (on the glacier at 2500 m) and a near-simultaneous voice of God whumpf in the same spot made decision making easy and we retreated back to Bow Hut without having exposed ourselves to any steep slopes.
If the surface hoar was in the location I dug in it probably is everywhere on the route to the col. I can't see things getting better there that quickly, especially in the cold, shady "bottleneck" between Balfour and the nunatak where the steepest slopes are encountered. The route out Sherbrooke is suspect to me right now too. Another group turned back from Balfour yesterday, March 15.
Descending from Bow Hut the afternoon of March 15 we observed two solar-triggered size 2.5-3 avalanches off west and south aspects (Mts Crowfoot and Jimmy Simpson). We dodged from safe spot to safe spot all the way down the valley but saw no new activity near the trail.
Mark Klassen
Mountain Guide
www.alpinism.com