ACMG Mountain Conditions Report Summary for the Rockies and Columbia Mountains issued October 14th, 2010After a fine couple of weeks, we have slipped, hopefully briefly, back into winter. As of 9:30 am it is snowing steadily in Canmore and there is 2cm on my deck. Jasper Park wardens report snow almost to town there, 3 cm at Parker’s ridge and 15cm at Maligne lake. In Revelstoke snow fell overnight to approx 1500m. Not much reported activity from the alpine this week but one party found surprisingly variable conditions on the North face of Mt. Stanley. Some snow did fall earlier in the week across the Columbias and it seems variable amounts did fall across the Rockies divide. The Stanley party said the new snow and wind had made the crevasses edges harder to read and covered the face in everything from thigh deep rotten snow drifts to bare ice. Certainly not the stellar “neve” conditions found earlier in the alpine. It seems that the quartzite alpine climbing in both the Selkirks and Jasper areas and the Bugaboos granite is done for awhile(next july?). Moderate elevation limestone such as Castle and Louis may come back if the wx forecast is correct but ice and snow will likely remain in the shade for a very long time. Front ranges southerly facing rock and scrambling routes should rebound but expect some verglas this weekend as we may get back into a melt freeze cycle below treeline. Speaking of ice, lots of wise and hungry eyes have been looking around but you still have to look up, way up, to see much climbable ice. Lots of water is still running for this time of year and various little dribbles and sheets have appeared from the Terminator to the top of polar Circus but they are discontinuous, skinny and very “modern” looking. Above 2700-3000m, climbable ice can likely be found on some well watered routes like Asteroid Alley, Cromwell north face etc. The new snow will probably have enough depth and wind effect to create brittle new cornices and windslabs in places where you really don’t want them. It would be prudent to give this snow at least a couple of days to settle and to clean off the ice and the stone. The forecast for the East slope of the Rockies still looks good. Yesterday was as close to a perfect temperature as you can find on Yamnuska. More of that would be just fine. Larry Stanier |
