[MCR] Wapta Traverse Dec 30 to Jan 2

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

for New Year’s myself and fellow guide Jesse P took one client across the Wapta Traverse, starting at Bow Hut & finishing at West Louise Lodge.

as expected, we encountered many early season conditions, as well as the additional observations:

overall snowpack coverage on the glaciers is quite thin, with amounts varying from bare ice (and large patches of such) to about 150cm in isolated spots.  mostly it is 50cm of unconsolidated, facetted snow.  many crevasse fields are visible, with some hidden under the thin snowpack.  we found most snow bridges to be thin & not trust worthy for crossing.  these types of hazards were especially evident on the crossing over the Balfour hi col, on the North side & can be seen in good visibility from the Balfour hut.  of note in this area was an icefall avalanche that covered most of the only useable line of travel.

the outhouse structure at Scott Duncan hut has been blown over by an intense windstorm sometime this fall.  the Alpine Club of Canada is aware of the issue and will fix as soon as they can. please contact the National Office in Canmore for further details.

we did find some real nice tree skiing in the Niles drainage just North of Sherbrooke lake.  it appears that many people have been enjoying it as the trail to West Louise Lodge is packed & in good shape.

a final note; the dramatic recession of the neve this summer has left a very different set of conditions upon the glaciers than what i observed on the same traverse last spring in April.  i would strongly urge anybody considering the traverse in the near future to carefully consider all factors involved in this undertaking, especially the changes that have occurred.  having first hand knowledge from travel in August or September of last summer (in order to have a good idea where the recently exposed crevasse fields are) would be very helpful.  i am not sure when conditions will return to a similar state as last spring, but i don’t expect it happen quickly.  

cheers,

dave healey
acmg ski guide
Yamnuska Mountain Adventures
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