[MCR] Gimli peak access and conditions, Southern Selkirks

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

Hi all,

I went for a drive up to the Gimli trailhead this morning and
the road is in decent shape. I was able to drive to with-in a 100m of the
parking lot with a 2 wheel drive vehicle. There are just a few snow patches on
the last 100m of road and the parking is actually free of snow. With the
foretasted temperatures, this snow should melt in a few days.  



There is still heaps of snow in the Alpine but
the South ridge of Gimli looked snow free climbable. That being said most of the steeper routes on the SW face will need more time to become dry. The descent is
almost all snow covered and will take a while to dry out, an ice axe and
crampons would be very useful. The trail to Gimli Peak would be hard to locate at this time,
it looked entirely snow covered. 


I noticed some small size 1 wet snow avalanches on steep
solar aspects triggered by today's powerful sun rays. The Spring snowpack is melting and
consolidating very slowly this year, feels like the conditions are about 3 weeks
behind. I expect traveling conditions will be challenging with-out an
overnight freeze and that snow stability will deteriorate quickly with daytime
warming and solar radiations.
A few more weeks and snow/travel conditions in the alpine should improve significantly, a bit more sun would help too!

Cheers,

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



 		 	   		  
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