From mcr at informalex.org Mon Oct 5 01:12:36 2009 From: mcr at informalex.org (Public Mountain Conditions Report) Date: Sun, 4 Oct 2009 22:12:36 -0700 Subject: [MCR] Athabasca Area Conditions, Jasper Park - Sept 30 - Oct 3 Message-ID: A group of Thompson Rivers University students and instructors finished a few days of mountaineering in Jasper on October 3rd, camping at the Icefields campground and climbing in the Athabasca area. Generally conditions were quite dry, with lots of exposed ice. Recent minor snowfall had accumulated on lee slopes and was enough to fill hollows on the glaciers and hide crevasses with thin snow cover. A larger snowfall on the night of October 2nd has now altered conditions considerably. We climbed the Silverhorn route on Mt. Athabasca on October 1, and except for a few deep (up to 1 meter) loaded pockets at the base of the route, it was bare brittle ice the whole way up, for about 10 rope lengths. Cold temps (-10 to -12 C) and windy! We decided against the ramp route descent due to the obvious snow loading from the moderate southwest winds. We descended the skier's right side of the AA Col, down snow covered scree, and did a half rope-length belayed downclimb over the well covered bergschrund (covered with rocks, snow, ice). I have attached a photo of both sides of the AA Col from October 1. It snowed 10-15 cm at the Icefields campground on the night of October 2nd, so the attached photo shows condition prior to the last snowfall. Groups also climbed Boundary Peak, and conducted practice sessions on the toe of the Athabasca Glacier as well as on the climber's right side of the North Glacier on Mt. Athabasca. I have attached a couple photos to show the excellent practice crevasse / millwell that can be accessed from the toe of the Athabasca Glacier, in about the center of the glacier, just past the second glaciology pole. There is enough snow now for avalanches to be a concern, especially on loaded lee slopes. A ride in an avalanche could result in a fall into one of the numerous crevasses or over a cliff. Glacier travel will be difficult, with numerous hidden crevasses under the new snow. Roped travel and probing ahead is highly recommended. Thompson Rivers University Adventure Studies: Iain Stewart-Patterson - Mountain Guide Jordy Shepherd - Mountain Guide Abby Watkins - ACMG Alpine Guide / Assistant Ski Guide Jeff Honig - Mountain Guide Craig McGee - Mountain Guide -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: AA Col Oct 1, 2009.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 361849 bytes Desc: not available Url : -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Athabasca Glacier 2 Sept 30.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 166934 bytes Desc: not available Url : -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Athabasca Glacier Sept 30.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 211523 bytes Desc: not available Url : From mcr at informalex.org Wed Oct 7 23:49:06 2009 From: mcr at informalex.org (Public Mountain Conditions Report) Date: Wed, 7 Oct 2009 21:49:06 -0600 Subject: [MCR] K Country snow Message-ID: Out for a wander today, making it to about 2700 m on Burstall Peak. Overall only a few cm's of snow on the ground but that makes for some slippery scrambling. We avoided areas with bad runouts below in case we went for a little slide and decided against going the final little way along the narrow ridge to the summit. Of note is that in isolated windloaded pockets on smooth terrain we have definitely reached threshold depth where there is now enough snow to avalanche. A slab avalanche wouldn't be very wide but if it took you off your feet in the wrong place it would be nasty. Friends - I do have some - report that they triggered several micro- slabs in the Highwood Pass area yesterday, where some pockets have up to a meter of snow in them from windloading. Mark Klassen Mountain Guide www.alpinism.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mcr at informalex.org Fri Oct 9 01:51:41 2009 From: mcr at informalex.org (Public Mountain Conditions Report) Date: 9 Oct 2009 05:51:41 -0000 Subject: [MCR] ACMG Mountain Conditions Report Summary for the Rockies and Columbia Mountains issued October 8, 2009 Message-ID: <20091009055141.22238.qmail@udumti.pair.com> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: