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Okotoks, Alberta
Canada
326 Posts |
Posted - 05/16/2009 : 9:09 PM
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Went up Snow peak today and there is still tons of snow but with the warm weather today and tomorrow that will go isothermal pretty quick. Don't recommend going up Snow Peak or even Burstall Pass if that is the case...avi conditions wouldn't be good as well as crappy skiing.
Posted some pictures at http://canada4u.zenfolio.com/outings/summits/snowpeak |
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| Engor
Intermediate Member
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Calgary
838 Posts |
Posted - 05/17/2009 : 08:30 AM
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Went up Cinquefoil yesterday. The route is in a good condition. Ankle-deep snow higher up, very supportive. In two places I ran into some deep snow, on the way down I figured out that it can be easily bypassed on climber's right. Lots of sheep and ticks.
Looks like Jasper area is in much better condition than Banff/Kananaskis right now. |
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calgary, ab
Canada
122 Posts |
Posted - 05/18/2009 : 1:09 PM
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| i backpacked at mt rundle campground up behind banff on saturday night. trail was a bit muddy, but clear of snow. |
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Canmore, AB
Canada
1238 Posts |
Posted - 05/18/2009 : 2:54 PM
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Was up on Grillmair's Chimney on Yam yesterday. What a mind blowing experience!!!
The south face is completely snow free and in awesome condition to climb. The scramblers side (northern aspect) is still partially covered in packed snow/ice near the summit so a pair of traction devices would go a long way.
The parking lot was full of at least 60 cars. Never seen it so busy!!! |
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Penhold, Alberta
Canada
2009 Posts |
Posted - 05/18/2009 : 3:06 PM
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| Just got home from Wapiabi Gap (Nordegg area). Woke up to 3-4 in. of snow. Trip report coming up soon. |
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Finally stopping that crazy suffering that is ice, climbing to concentrate on great ski tours!
3505 Posts |
Posted - 05/18/2009 : 4:26 PM
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As at May 16/17, in Mt. Robson, the trail has some sparse snow towards Kinney Lake, almost none from Kinney to Whitehorn Camp, none to the base of the hill, sparse snow until about 1km short of Emperor Falls, and then bottomless corn snow that is doable, but a little slow. Still >1M up high in the Berg Lake valley, and again, to the ground postholing.
However, as we left early this AM, there was a ton of precip happening, and even on the lower slopes, snow accumulating. I doubt it will add much trouble to traveling in the park, but who knows.
Overall, the trail is in pretty good shape for early season. Minor deadfall is being cleared as I write this, the suspension bridge by Whitehorn has been completely rebuilt, and other repair work is being done quickly.
There is no cut firewood for the Hargreaves Shelter.
Driving home, much new snow in Jasper, Hinton and Edson, and it's coming to Edmonton. Highway was good, though in the dark, visibility would probably be poor. |
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Langley, BC
Canada
1078 Posts |
Posted - 05/18/2009 : 4:58 PM
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Manning Park:
Sumallo Grove parking lot still gated off.
Cascade parking area is open and free of snow.
Lightning Lake trail has intermittent snow, slow going in places.
Road to Blackwall Peak is still closed.
Castle Creek/Monument 78 is free of snow. For about 2km after the Castle Creek/Similkameen River trail junction the trail is somewhat flooded, but won't be a hinderance with normal height backpacking boots. |
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Edmonton, Alberta
Canada
797 Posts |
Posted - 05/19/2009 : 08:16 AM
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Went in to Landslide Lake in the Nordegg area. Free of snow (just minor patches) up to around 1700m, about 2km from the lake. Then it is deep and crappy. Postholing with snowshoes on (with overnight pack). A ridiculous task to get to the lake.
Lake of the Falls passable without snowshoes, but deep sections. |
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somewher in the never never., BC
Canada
134 Posts |
Posted - 05/19/2009 : 08:28 AM
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| Rachelo, is there any way of changing the title to this thread so that it is clear it is mostly Alberta conditions? |
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Calgary, Alberta
Andorra
3795 Posts |
Posted - 05/19/2009 : 10:58 AM
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I thought the fact that it was in the Alberta forum would be sufficiently obvious...
I guess not, so yep, I'll do that. |
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Edmonton, Alberta
Canada
253 Posts |
Posted - 05/19/2009 : 11:48 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by johngenx
As at May 16/17, in Mt. Robson, the trail has some sparse snow towards Kinney Lake, almost none from Kinney to Whitehorn Camp, none to the base of the hill, sparse snow until about 1km short of Emperor Falls, and then bottomless corn snow that is doable, but a little slow. Still >1M up high in the Berg Lake valley, and again, to the ground postholing.
However, as we left early this AM, there was a ton of precip happening, and even on the lower slopes, snow accumulating. I doubt it will add much trouble to traveling in the park, but who knows.
Overall, the trail is in pretty good shape for early season. Minor deadfall is being cleared as I write this, the suspension bridge by Whitehorn has been completely rebuilt, and other repair work is being done quickly.
There is no cut firewood for the Hargreaves Shelter.
Driving home, much new snow in Jasper, Hinton and Edson, and it's coming to Edmonton. Highway was good, though in the dark, visibility would probably be poor.
What did they do to the bridge at Whitehorn?
Also, there have been reports of 20-30 cm of snow between Edson and Jasper. It's snowing in Edmonton now. |
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Finally stopping that crazy suffering that is ice, climbing to concentrate on great ski tours!
3505 Posts |
Posted - 05/19/2009 : 1:20 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by nomsha
quote:
Originally posted by johngenx
...the suspension bridge by Whitehorn has been completely rebuilt
What did they do to the bridge at Whitehorn?
Rebuilt it. Same bridge, rebuilt. |
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Alberta-based choss climbin', flame throwin', rappel lovin', ass talkin' hater who doesn't like "Gumby" for a descriptor
6302 Posts |
Posted - 05/20/2009 : 3:25 PM
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Paging Mikemoran...how were conditions on Snow peak today? Quite interested to hear.
We went up Tryst ridge and abandoned plans to head down the chutes and then over and up to Tent Ridge. Instead we ended up hugging the trees down the twin paths before super slope back to the road, one of which had a rather deep fracture crown in it.
Snow conditions today were quite sketch. No melt freeze at all up to and including 2400 metres. Seemed to be the same on all aspects. A bit of fresh snow on top of isothermal slushy crap with virtually no crust in the top couple feet. 4 recent natural slab avalanches from NE through SE aspects. Tons of rather large recent point releases. Didn't take much to get the snow moving.
Where the heck is the spring melt freeze...grrrrr. |
Edited by - time2clmb on 05/20/2009 3:28 PM |
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calgary, ab
Canada
122 Posts |
Posted - 05/20/2009 : 9:05 PM
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we didn't end up bagging snow peak. we went to burnstall pass, and then w/ snow globbing up on my skins, and whiteout conditions up on the peak, we decided to just do some laps on the ski slopes shown in chic scotts book.
travel up the trail and across the gravel flats was good. fresh snow (2-4cm) mostly covered up tracks from the weekend. once through the steep heavily treed section after the gravel flats, there was a bit more fresh snow. 4-5cm i'm guessing. we toured up to the pass on a somewhat supportive crust. at the pass there was about 5cm on top of isothermal slush. we didn't encounter any stability issues, but saw natural avalanches (some cornice failure, some point releases, some slab) on all aspects. at 4pm we did our last lap at the pass and headed for the car. pretty much everything below tree line was suspect, and not bonding well.
on the way back, the snow on the bridge closest to the parking lot had melted a bunch, and made me wonder whether it will survive the rest of the week/weekend.
it snowed on and off throughout the day. it was snowing hard when we left the pass, snowing hard beneath the cliffs of snow peak, cleared up while we crossed the gravel flats, and then as we arrived into the parking lot, it was snowing very hard.
pics are here:
http://picasaweb.google.ca/mikemoran4/BurnstallPassBackcountrySki#
forgive my shotgun approach to photos. |
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Calgary, Alberta
Andorra
3795 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2009 : 08:29 AM
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Does anyone know what the Ghost River area might look like right now? Either from having been or heard, or even a good guess?
Alternately, know whether there is a land authority I could call to ask? I'm guessing Banff would not keep record past the end of Minnewanka. |
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Canmore, AB
Canada
1238 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2009 : 11:19 AM
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Rachel,
Here's a recent post from Gravsports... at least on the road conditions :
Did a tour of the Ghost on Monday.
The road in is pretty reasonable.
The muddy ruts at the bottom of the big hill might be problematic for vehicles with lower clearance.
The new river crossing prior to 39 is getting deeper. It'll be interesting to see how that develops. |
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Alberta-based choss climbin', flame throwin', rappel lovin', ass talkin' hater who doesn't like "Gumby" for a descriptor
6302 Posts |
Posted - 05/24/2009 : 5:26 PM
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Mt. Baldy was suprisingly quiet today. Good conditions on the main and south summits. The ridge between South and West summits is all snow. We tried the ridge proper to get up the West summit, but it doesn't go. You need to go out right, which is full of snow right now and not having ice axes we would have been fools to try.
My advice is to keep to the ridge proper on the ascent to the north summit and not circumnavigate the gendarmes...they are the best part and it's much more interesting. |
Edited by - time2clmb on 05/24/2009 5:41 PM |
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Finally stopping that crazy suffering that is ice, climbing to concentrate on great ski tours!
3505 Posts |
Posted - 05/24/2009 : 6:00 PM
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Just got back from a weekend of crevasse rescue practice. Parker's Ridge was waist deep wallowing below treeline and a Yam group reported poor avy conditions above treeline, so we headed to the Little A glacier on Athabasca.
Man, has that part of the glacier retreated! The snow is thin on that section, so we built anchors with screws, which sped things up and we got lots of "rescues" in. Leaving late in the day (7:00pm) the snow was SO soft, we sank to our thighs on every step. Thankfully the snow was sparse on the trail.
As for alpine climbing, Athabasca looks like a real mix. The NF and Silverhorn are showing huge amounts of bare ice. Bring screws. The Hourglass looks like it might be the choice route this year. No 5.8 rock step like the NF, but a sweet looking (hope to get a better look!) crux with an airy pitch of ice and ending up close to the summit proper.
The normal North Glacier route looked poor from down below, but who knows what the quick change to warmer weather has done to the snow. A few more days should provide a better look. There is recent evidence of a good sized slab release on The Ramp, and I'd be super cautious there.
Driving to and from the icefields, all kinds of avy activity in evidence, from point releases to HUGE slab releases. Last week's snow is coming down, so be careful out there. |
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Alberta-based choss climbin', flame throwin', rappel lovin', ass talkin' hater who doesn't like "Gumby" for a descriptor
6302 Posts |
Posted - 05/24/2009 : 6:05 PM
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quote:
There is recent evidence of a good sized slab release on The Ramp
Is it the one near the seracs? Not the Friday that just passed, but the week prior 2 skiers triggered a slab while skinning up, one was carried off the seracs according to reports. Right after the several days of storm snow, at 1:00 in the afternoon... |
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calgary, ab
Canada
122 Posts |
Posted - 05/27/2009 : 11:00 PM
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mt ward - may 25
deep, unsupportive snow started about halfway from parking lot to the headwall. couldn't find the trail up the headwall, so i ended up have a bit of a struggle. lake was beginning to thaw. someone had bootpacked steps up into the valley recently, which made my accent easier. talus slope sucked, but was snow free. at the top, the forecast thunderstorm arrived w/ driving snow. i was reminded of why you shouldn't be on a highpoint during an electric storm... let's leave it at that. great glissade down into valley, and then again down to the lake.
sanson peak aka sulphur mountain gondola hike - may 27
bits of snow/ice appeared on the trail about 400m elevation up from upper hot springs trail start. muddy from 600m up point, last 40m to the gondola platform was quite muddy. sorry i don't have exact elevations, i was only looking at the gain part of my altimeter. |
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Alberta Recent conditions reports
