Wapta icefields conditions

<p>Stayed at bow hut from dec 9-13... Parking lot at 8am on sunday was 0. Arrived at the hut at 11:30am temp was -5 and extremly windy. Conditions on the icefields is very fast travel on hard wind packed sastruggi surface. Summited st nick skied the east face 20m below the peak to the hut, conditions were icy sastruggi and hard pack wind affect, slope was 45 degrees+ still very thin in spots. Second day went up gordon and skied a NE aspect of the subpeak by vulture col, again icy hard packed sastruggi slope was around or over 50 degrees and thin, went up olive that same day, skied the NE feature far right on the north ridge over the burgschrund, snow was alittle better until hoping over the burg schrund then back to icy sastruggi, slope rolled into 50 degrees or more over the schrund, ( winds had calmed this day). Day three we wanted to do collie but the morning cloud cover and winds picking back up n hovering at 40km with stronger gusts made us go to plan b, habel. Same skiing conditions as gordon and st nick. Day 4 we went up mt thompson before heading out the wind died down and was super clear made for some amazing views. Coverage was between 100cm to 240 cm depending on location, checked temps every morning and night and they stayed a consistent -5 at the hut the whole trip( didnt feel the inversion). Clear skies the whole trip besides tuesday morning. The peyto side looks alot thinner then the bow side lots of sags. I also want to clear up a mistake on a density change on my wed dec 6 min report, at the 70cm down crust the pack above and below was 2 finger density with above the crust turning to 4 finger as the snow began to facet against the crust for 5cm up( i had said fist for some silly reason). No pits dug this trip not much traffic up there. i would keep an eye on those layers incase they start deteriorating. Lots of surface hoar at the parking lot on the way out... Oh the lake has a few sketchy cracks in it on the way back. Although riding conditions are teeth rattling things are great, no signs of instability but reminents of old size 1.5 about half a meter or less deep im assuming wind loading on a crusty south slope under thompson.</p>

Terrain Ridden

Alpine slopes, Convex slopes, Steep slopes.

Snow Conditions

Crusty, Hard, Wind affected.

Weather Conditions

Sunny.