[MCR] Vermilion peak area and Observation peak, BNP, AB

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

I have been out touring the past few days in the Vermilion peak area  
in Kootenay national park and around Bow lake up the icefields  
parkway.  Other than the generally well settled "Rockies" snowpack  
that everyone seems to be talking about we also found quite a bit of  
variability in snowpack stability.

During our two days in Kootenay park we had numerous  
"whoomphs" ( collapsing of a weaker layer in the snowpack) and  
actually had a skier triggered size 2 slab at around 1900m on a well  
supported southwest feature in the trees! This slide would have been  
quite ugly had one of us been caught in it. These numerous failures in  
the snowpack happened in generally shallower areas and were all  
related to the basil facets and depth hoar, depths varied.

Today up around Observation peak we continued to have some quite big  
"settlements" in the snowpack which made us stick to smaller well  
supported terrain.

Many people seem to be stepping it up in terms of seriousness of  
terrain. This is mostly due to a fairly good bridging strength over  
the lower weak layers and a good " feeling" in the upper snowpack,  
however personally I'll be a bit conservative for a bit longer. It  
seems that you could get away with skiing some larger terrain right  
now, but if you hit the weak spot, which somehow I have been finding a  
lot? I think you may get a larger avalanche than you were hoping for.

Its only January folks, still lots of good skiing to be had for many  
months, have fun out there.

Craig McGee, mountain guide.