Just finished a 4 Day Wapta Traverse Peyto Lake to Sherbrook Lake today.
Thu: Peyto Hut approach. Trail down to the lake is well tracked and carries when frozen in the morning, but beware of stepping off it…..There are about 20cm of snow left on the lake ice currently. The hut approach via the moraine traveled well and we had to take off our skis only three times to make it past some rocky islands. The snow coverage on the glacier is meager (meaning even worse than normal!). I ended up roping on as soon as the route on the glacier swings left in order to traverse the more or less flat glacier.
Fri: Climbed Mt. Rhonda (formerly Rhonda South) and Mt. Gordon, then Bow Hut. The 5-10 cm of fresh snow we had from localized snow showers overnight did wonders for the skiing quality, especially on the northerly aspects of Gordon where wind protected. I had crossed the Wapta from Bow Hut to Peyto Lake in early September last year and there was not a speck of snow left. Given the low coverage and uneven distribution on the glacier this season, I stayed roped up in places where I had never used a rope before.
Sat: Balfour Hut, High Col, Mt. Balfour to Scott Duncan Hut: Good track to the Balfour High Col, which requires traversing several crevasse bridges. The seracs seem to look more threatening every year. No sign of previous travel on the summit slope to Mt. Balfour (a previous party approached the south ridge earlier by a less threatening slope, which is not a bad idea). A quick shear test revealed and moderate shear on small facets (recrystalized snow) 10 cm down on the interface of the recent snow, however the 10cm slab wasn’t cohesive enough to where it was an issue (yet!). Surprising and more concerning was the existence of decomposing surface hoar 3-5 mm in size about 50cm down which came out as a clean shear but only very hard (on this wind-exposed, southerly aspect). The bulletin had mentioned this layer and I could imagine it being more of an issue in shady and wind protected locations.
Sun: Ski out via Sherbrook Lake felt more like early May than early March. We used the “conventional exit” straight down the valley but I believe the Schiesser Lomas offers easier travel once you hit the tree line, even if one has reason to feel good about going straight down from a stability point of view. The trail from the lake back to the highway made the Whistler luge competition look like kid’s play…….
Sounds like there is finally some real snow in the forecast so this might all be yesterday’s news!
Let’s hope winter is not over yet!
Jorg Wilz
Mountain Guide (ACMG/IFMGA)
OnTop ltd.
www.ontopmountaineering.com
1-800 506 7177 or (001) 403 678 2717