[MCR] Northern Selkirks, April 18-25

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

Hi all,

I just finished guiding a week long ski mountaineering 
trip across the Adamants & Sir 
Sandford range. We accessed the area by helicopter from Golden starting 
near the 
headwaters of Austerity creek. We traveled between 1800m and 3150m from 
Mount Sir Williams to 
Moberly pass via Fairy Meadows, Great Cairn and the Goldstream névé 
areas. We 
made several ascents including; Unicorn peak, Pioneer Peak, The 
Footstool, Alpina Dome, Citadel Mountain as well as a few unnamed peaks 
in the Goldstream Névé area. Weather, traveling conditions and snowpack 
were all very seasonal. We were greeted by clear skies on the first four
 days and had mixed weather 
with classic convective snow showers on the remainder of the week. 
Freezing levels were between 2500m & 3000m during the day lowering 
to below 2000m most nights. Travel was on supportive melt freeze crust 
in early AM changing to moist snow on all solar aspects by mid day. We 
took advantage of the firm morning conditions to increase safety. All 
glaciers encountered were passable and well covered. Some crevasse 
bridges were starting to sag but were 
still strong particularly in the AM. 

The snowpack was mostly 
stable in the 
morning however, it quickly deteriorated with daytime warming & 
solar 
radiations in the PM. Isothermal snow was observed below 2000m on 
southerly aspects. The 
area received 30-40 cm of new snow during the second half 
of the week which lead to excellent powder skiing particularly on 
northerly
 aspects. This new snow was bonding well to the previous layer. Snowpack
 height ranged between 200cm and 300cm at treeline elevations. The April
 10th interface was down 30-60 cm, it was touchy earlier 
in the week showing moderate sudden shear results. We experience 
extensive whumpfing on this layer earlier in the week. The warm temps 
helped 
this layer bond and shear results improved throughout the week. As we 
left yesterday, another layer of surface hoar was forming. We saw 
crystals up
 to 7mm at mountain tops, most of which was already melting off on solar
 aspects. On the avalanche front, we observed a heath & radiation 
induced avalanche cycle on April 21st and 22nd. Numerous wet loose 
avalanches along with
 the odd deep slab avalanche up to size 3 out of steep rocky south 
facing terrain were observed in the afternoon those days. Of note, we 
saw very little activity out of north facing terrain. 

With careful planning and proper timing, fine ski mountaineering can still be found in the northern Selkirks!

Cheers,

David Lussier
mountain guide
www.summitmountainguides.com
 		 	   		  
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