[MCR] Columbia Icefields Area.

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

Hello all,
 
Spent the long weekend working and climbing out of the Columbia Icefields area with fellow Yamnuska Guide, Stevie B. Just a few obs we put together over the three days we we're there.  
 
Lot's of snow at Parkers Ridge. The zone around "the" windscoop was a great place for us to play around with crevasse rescue, snow anchors, and self arrest. Probably will be for a while yet as there's still a ton of snow hanging around for this time of year. 
 
Sunday and Monday we spend just below Boundary Peak. Plenty of ice showing through on the climbers left on the tongue of the North Glacier, great for cramponing practice with our crew. The tongue still had the usual strip of snow up the middle of it which made for easy/supportive step kicking to access the glacier above. Snow depth on the way up to Boundary Col was variable but on average between 1.5 and 2 meters, average boot pen in the mornings around 15cm's . 
Reasonable travel Saturday and Sunday on the glacier thanks to the previous few nights of cold temps that seemed to linger a bit in the snow. Unfortunately quickly deteriorating though, with overnight low's of +5C both nights we were there, along with about 5mm or so of rain to summit Sunday night.
 
We'd hoped to have a go at Athabasca on Monday but decided it best to blow off that plan with the warm temps, rain, whiteout visibility, and numerous wet avalanches we could hear locally through the murk at 2am Monday morning. Boundary Peak was a great option for us given conditions. 
 
Even despite the Scottish-like weather we we being basted with monday morning, we got some absolutely amazing views as the clouds seemed to part for us just as we arrived at the summit of Boundary around 8am. A layer in the cloud right around 2500m gave us unbelievable views for the half hour or so we hung around on the top taking photos. Beautiful!
 
There's a few more friends of ours up there working at the moment as well, so if your interested keep your eyes out as I'd imagine they'll have an update to this toward the end of the week.
 
Have fun out there! 
 
Mike
 
 
Mike Trehearne
Assistant Guide.
Yamnuska Mountain Adventures
m_trehearne at hotmail.com
 		 	   		  
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