Just finished guiding a great ski tour from Mount Clemenceau across to the Columbia Icefields along with Simon Robbins. We were able to climb Mount Triad, King Edward and Mount Columbia along the way, and enjoyed good travel conditions through most of the trip until waking this morning to 25cm of new snow with moderate winds at 2800m on the Columbia Icefields. This slowed things down but made for some nice turns down the Saskatchewan Glacier exit.
Four days of mixed weather and warm temperatures up high kept us moving and limited our climbing opportunities. This gave way to four clear and cold days with solid crusts down to 1800m and easy travel and climbing. Mount Triad offered good skiing off the summit on the NW side and good thick snow bridges throughout (3m+) on the 13th. King Edward was in good shape on the 14th with a solid crust and good crampon travel up the S face to reach the short snow gully on top of the E face which leads to the summit. The high route to gain the Columbia Icefields from King Edward has more snow on it than I have seen in the past at this time of year and allowed for good travel on a solid crust all the way from 1800m up to 3000m on the 15th. Mt Columbia was in excellent shape yesterday as reported by Barry.
Avalanche observations were limited to slides caused by daytime warming in the early part of the week when things heated up fast and stayed warm overnight. We saw no avalanches in the last half of the week due to the solid crusts to 3000m and well settled snow above this. Today we had very limited observations on the ski out due to blowing snow. I would expect some wind slabs forming at higher elevations and the usual sluffing and surface slabs in steep terrain until it settles out.
Good coverage on the glaciers throughout the trip with 3m+ above 2400m.
The Saskatchewan Glacier offered good snow cover all the way to the toe on its N side, and the exit through the morraines was about 40% walking and 60% skiing using winddrifted snow on the N sides of the creek banks. The old road out to the highway was still skiable in isothermal snow. It should last for a few more days to a week but is melting out quickly now.
Still great touring and skiing to be had up high when it clears up again. What a winter!
ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide
Trip photos at www.banffmountainguides.com