[MCR] Little Yoho Valley, Rockies, March 9-11, 2015

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

Spent the last three days skiing in the Little Yoho bulletin region with a
Parks Canada Visitor Safety team.

We travelled in to the Stanley Mitchell hut from the Takakkaw Falls road
via the Iceline trail on March 9th, climbed Mt Des Poilus on the 10th, and
skied out to Emerald Lake via Emerald Pass on the 11th.

Moist snow was present below 2000m and higher on solar aspects. Snow depths
near treeline averaged 160cm with coverage on the glaciers ranging from
150cm at 2300m to over 200cm above 2500m in most areas. Some ice cliffs are
present at the center of the toe of the Des Poulis Glacier to keep in mind
if you are descending in a whiteout. Travel was easy on a wide variety of
snow surfaces and crusts, and ski crampons were useful in several places.

The Mt Des Poilus area received some new snow on March 9th which made for
very good skiing but is sitting on a buried sun crust. We had a whumph at
the edge of the steep south face at 2950m and were able to trigger a size 2
avalanche, 25 to 40cm deep, that propagated 140m. It was a bit of an
anomaly for the area, however it is something to keep an eye out for in
similar high elevation areas along the divide that received recent snow.
Travel across Isolated Col in both directions was straightforward with few
avalanche concerns until it either snows again or heats up.

We saw no other avalanches but our other avalanche concerns included small
isolated wind slabs high in the alpine, cornice failures, and slabs or wet
snow avalanches out of steep solar terrain and at lower elevations with
warm temperatures.

Cold morning temperatures allowed us to travel out to Emerald Lake early on
the 11th with a supportive crust all the way to valley bottom, however
travel was rugged below 1900m due to previous avalanche debris, and the
crust was beginning to break down in the valley by 1130.
--
Conrad Janzen
ACMG Mountain Guide
Parks Canada Visitor Safety <https://www.facebook.com/ParksMountainSafety>
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