[MCR] Rockies: Bow Hut day trip

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

Well, the change that was in the wind has certainly arrived in the immediate
environs of the Bow Hut.

Our ACC Calgary AST2 course went for a day trip to the Bow Hut today. By mid
morning the west winds had already begun to pick up to moderate and light
snow was falling at a rate of less than a centimeter an hour. At noon we ran
into Nick¹s group from Yamnuska descending from the hut and he mentioned
that he felt soft slabs were already beginning to form.

We could see the snow starting to be redistributed in the rocks above and we
decided to run up and down to the hut and see how good a track we could set
and how safe we could be. We also felt the soft slab formation and a few
isolated small features in the immediate lee of the wind were definitely
beginning to behave like slabs. The final slope below the hut had some thin
10 to 15cm soft slabs that sheared very easily in isolated locations. We had
already had the discussion that at the first sign of this becoming any
thicker or more widespread we would just turn tail and run. We were doing
pretty constant hand shears and pole tests to make sure we weren¹t fooling
ourselves. Conditions remained manageable and we reached the hut at our turn
around time.

In the short time that it took us to have a snack and remove our skins the
winds continued to accelerate and the precipitation rate was now a solid 1cm
per hour. Brief intense gusts were now really beginning to move snow around.
The headwall was now sluffing and we beat a hasty retreat with our group
spaced out. The soft slabs were becoming more pronounced and more widespread
but we were now out of harm¹s way. We suspected that by morning the slope
below the hut may even be a concern.

The large open slope directly above the entrance into the canyon (as you
come down from the hut) was also distinctly different from the morning and
we felt that by Saturday morning this would also be a more significant
consideration. We felt it odd that even when we were breaking trail in
untracked snow that we didn¹t have any whumpfing today. Didn¹t need it to
tell us that the hazard was rising. We had far too many other indicators.
Fortunately we made it in and out before things really started to get
spooky.

As an aside, the creek in the canyon has a large number of open holes and it
just doesn¹t seem as well filled in as normal. The winds in the canyon were
calm in the morning but had started to drift snow when we made our way out.
The lake also had a ³slushing event² (common during wind and snow events)
and there was open water about 15cm below the surface snow. Managed to keep
our skins and feet dry but a few unlucky ³soles² hiking along were obviously
not so lucky!

It was heartening to see that Parks had bumped the hazard to
High/Considerable/Moderate for Saturday. Sure felt that things were heading
that way to the group and me.

Cyril Shokoples MG
RescueDynamics.com
ACC AST2 Crew
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