[MCR] Crowfoot mountain area-Rockies-New natural avalanche

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

Hi All,

Today we toured up the regular Northwest flank of Crowfoot mountain. We enjoyed decent ankle deep powder under scattered skies and very little winds. The snow pack in this area is as reported previously, it felt very supportive in the deeper areas and we did not see signs of instability. We measured upwards of 200cm of snow on the small glacier below Crowfoot mountain.

Of note was a fresh looking size 3 slab avalanche at 2800m off the North face of Vultur Peak. This peak is located 1.7 km Northeast of Mount Olive and can be seen from the canyon when approaching the Bow hut (see photo). This is an extremely steep unsupported start zone however it appear that the bed surface was last summer snow/ice surface. The fracture line looked to be many meters deep. The debris did not seem to have reach the access route to the Bow hut.

According to some of folks we saw skiing out from Bow hut (and previous posts), there were ongoing strong Southerly winds transporting snow in this areas last night which may have been the trigger. This may be an isolated event or terrain dependent but it shows that there is still potential for full depth avalanches with significant loading.

Keep your heads up!

David Lussier
ACMG-IFMGA Mountain Guide
www.summitmountainguides.com
 		 	   		  
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