The bottom line is that conditions continue to be touchy and dangerous with high consequences if an avalanche is triggered. If you golf, surf, rock climb, mountain bike, watch TV, read magazines or drink beer these all may be good options to skiing right now. Pull the boards back out when we have a big, fat melt freeze crust on the top of the snowpack.
If you are interested in specifics, read on:
The Assistant Ski Guide Exam started in Moberly Pass in the northern Selkirks on March 20. Over the next 4 days it snowed 20-30 cm. That, combined with mostly poor visibility and 4 layers of surface hoar in the top meter of the snowpack had us pinned in the trees for a couple of days. March 23 was a bit better and some of us actually got onto a glacier but we had to tiptoe gently on the flattest pieces of terrain possible and away from overhead hazard. We can take a hint so we bailed on March 24 on the first sunny day we had, the sun of course starting to trigger avalanches to size 2.5 in the environs of the camp by 8 am.
We moved to the Rockies where we could access terrain that was broad, flat and away from the worst overhead hazard. Things were still touchy, with one avalanche triggered remotely from a ridge on Observation Peak, March 25. This avalanche was a size 2+, propagated a good 100 m, most probably on surface hoar. We were on relatively benign terrain but the avalanche ran on a 45+ degree unsupported slope, east aspect, 2350 m. It pulled back onto the low angle ridge for a meter or so. Other large avalanches were also observed that day, probably triggered by warm temperatures.
March 26-27 were spent between Bow and Peyto huts. There was continued evidence of instability in that region, with a size 2.5 avalanche running off the Bow headwall and coming close to the uptrack sometime between 1300 on March 25 and 1200 on March 26. There were reports of skier triggered avalanches on the Diableret Glacier.
If you still want to go then choose low angle terrain away from overhead hazard, and make sure you have a very reasoned decision making process to commit to anything. This is no time to let desire get in the way of rationality.
Mark Klassen
Mountain Guide
www.alpinism.com