Laurie Skreslet and I have been leading two patrols of Outward Bound youth courses in K-Country the past two weeks. We travelled in the Picklejar--Mist--Sheep--Elbow region on the first week, finding many snow pockets on NE slopes starting at treeline. Mist ridge still had old remnant cornices most of the way--good for refilling the water bottles.
This past week was spent in the Aster Lake area. My group travelled over Elk Pass and the Petain Glacier to Upper Kananaskis Lake. We hunkered down for two days below the Petain Glacier weathing a wild storm with strong N winds that left up to 10 cm of storm snow in the alpine (July 12-13). Travel over Petain Glacier was good with 5-10 cm foot penetration and >125cm snow pack.
We climbed Mt. Joffre en route via a direct line on the North Face, finding excellent travel with good steps on slopes up to 47 degrees. Good ice screws down 50-80 cm and good T-slots. 7 pitches to summit slopes through the rock band.
Travel down from Aster involved crossing several steep icy snow slopes--ice axes and hard boots definitely recommended.
This week we're continuing from our camp at Point Campground north to exit over the French Glacier to Mud Lakes.
Tom Wolfe
AAG/SG ACMG
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