[MCR] Rockies - Cirque Peak - March 29th

Mon Mar 30 22:05:36 EDT 2015

We skied the north couloir of Cirque Peak via Helen creek. 

The approach trail was supportive and travel was fast on a well established trail. Forays outside of that path below 2100m were quickly aborted as we encountered unsupportive isothermal snow.
We chose to climb the south ridge of Cirque Peak and did not have to use ski or boot crampons as we had good footing between the rock and a mix of moist snow, thin ice and drifted powder patches. The lower temperatures forecast for the next few days could change the shape of that approach significantly as it freezes up. 
The ringbolts were in good shape and we chose to lower two members of our party 40m over the initial shallow rocky section to where the couloir opens and snow depth increases. The third member of our party rappelled down 25m and used the footsteps of the previous skiers to make it down to our established ledge.
We experienced minimal surface sluffing on the descent.
We would have had excellent skiing conditions on the North Glacier is we could see anything. By midday cloud base dropped to about 2000m and precipitation and winds increased. Ski penetration was 20cm over a dry snow layer. On our ski line we did not encounter any unstable snow. It felt like great winter skiing.  However we suspect that windslabs were building in areas loaded by the Strong Westerly winds above 2200m. There was an average of 200cm of snow on the glacier.
We retreated from the white back the highway via the north side of the col between Observation Subpeak and Cirque Peak. At 2300m the supportive melt freeze crust gave way to isothermal snow and made for a challenging skiing. 
We did not see any new avalanches.

with Stéphane Gagnon ACMG Apprentice Ski Guide

Philippe Gautier
ACMG Ski Guide
Currently in Alberta
phil at nevexp.com

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