[MCR] Rockies, Guiness Gully and Guiness Stout

Guided Guiness Gully and Stout today, March 14. A nice cool morning in Field, - 13 C. The 10- 30 centimetre snowpack leading to the first pitch was locked up with a moist snow surface that  had frozen hard overnight. The first pitch is getting beaten out and some 10 and 13 centimetre ice screws are helpful.

Above the top pitch of Guiness Gully there is a good trail/otterslide leading to Guiness Stout. The snowpack deepens to between 75 - 100 cm below the Stout and the recent storm snow has settled to 10 cms of dry snow. I found the March 8 surface hoar layer yielding moderate hand shears, but felt there wasn't enough load, or slab, above it to slide.

The Stout is in good shape with lots of new ice surface given the cold night. The new layer of surface hoar had grown to 4 miliimetres on top of the climb.

We bumslid much of the trail from the Stout down to the walk off (skier's left) above Guiness Gully, and were able to bumslide much of the descent gully.

A beautiful day out there.

Happy trails,

Barry Blanchard

Mountain Guide

www.barryblanchard.ca