[MCR] Waddington, Coast Mountains

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

Hi all,

We just finished guiding a successful ascent of the 
Northwest summit of Mount Waddington via the Dias Couloir/Angel Glacier 
route from May 5-8. We access the mountain with White Saddle Helicopter 
in Bluff Lake BC.  With the benefit of strong high pressure conditions 
we were able to make an ascent of this circuitous route in good time. 
The route was in good spring ski mountaineering condition and required 
the use of all the tools of the trade; ski crampons, boot crampons, ice 
axe, rope, etc. Daytime freezing levels were in the 2700m elevation 
range while overnight temperatures dropped to -5.0 C at basecamp 
nightly.  The combination of clear skies and fluctuating freezing levels
 created classic spring skiing conditions with firm surfaces ideal for traveling in the morning and unstable wet snow in the afternoon. 
Despite this we found fantastic powder skiing on north facing terrain 
above 3300m.

The snowpack was quite stable, particularly in the 
morning. We made most of our progress in the early morning and avoided traveling on solar aspects in the afternoon.  We saw a few wet loose 
avalanches out of steep south facing terrain in afternoon however; we 
did not see new slab avalanches or any other signs of instability. Our 
main concern was the snowpack on solar aspects in the Dias Glacier area 
below 3300m where we found consistent moderate to hard sudden shears 
down 50 to 80 cm on sugary crystals between crust layers. There were no 
crusts on the Angel glacier and the unconsolidated snow produced only 
minor shears. Snowpack depth varied from 250cm at the Dias Glacier 
basecamp at 2100m to 400+cm at higher elevation. Crevasses bridges on 
route were generally strong and passable.

All in all a fantastic trip!                                                                     

David Lussier
Mountain Guide
&
Morgen Funston
Apprentice Ski Guide

www.summitmountainguides.com
 		 	   		  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist6.pair.net/pipermail/mcr/attachments/20150508/e6fd5d23/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Angel Glacier.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 376674 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://pairlist6.pair.net/pipermail/mcr/attachments/20150508/e6fd5d23/attachment-0003.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: P1030410.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 335548 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://pairlist6.pair.net/pipermail/mcr/attachments/20150508/e6fd5d23/attachment-0004.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Summit slope.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 486509 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://pairlist6.pair.net/pipermail/mcr/attachments/20150508/e6fd5d23/attachment-0005.jpg>