Vulture peak/ wapta icefields conditions

<p>Started the morning at 8:30am, - 18 and calm in the num ti Jah lodge parking lot. Got about 100m out on the lake before a serious of very concerning loud sounds underneath us shifting the ice had us trim line the shore across. (likely expanding in the ice from the first cold snap, figured it was good and frozen but wouldn't tempt it, on return we skied across no sounds, no issue) Creek and canyon is covered with open spots. I did put my ski into the canyon first thing going through at a thin spot, luck of the draw with the bridging in the creek in some spots. Coverage was good for early December in the canyon and upto the head wall. Broke trail up the head wall, soft and hard wind slabs were encountered here but were not reactive to skier traffic. The Biden crust was felt alive and well in the head wall where we would poke through the slabs. Ventured into the ice cave again. Cool. Once one the icefield it was immediately evident there was an inversion present. No temp taken. Bow glacier tongue had anywhere from 150-230cm average in the lower bit and surface varied from powder to soft wind slabs and hard sastruggi(this might be my favourite snow word). Nearing 2800m on the way uptowards the st nic col, Coverage changed to about 110cm average. Above this 2800m mark we found dry unconsolidated powder that had not been blown of the glacier up until the st nic col. The vulture glacier was a mix of soft and hard windslabs( sastruggi) with an average depth on 110-130cm.( not pertinent but I do seem to remember the vulture glacier having a couple very large holes on the way down from the col to the flats of the glacier heading towards balfour. Unless it's changed the wind has made them completely invisible.(photos of crux zones on the balfour and collie route and pictures of the bow and vulture glaciers on the wapta icefield attached. Photos of crowfoot mtn and the pocket glacier also attached) Skinned up vulture peak on hard sastruggi where we enjoyed a mediocre ski down on what we came up. Skied of the east side of st nic col and found decent powder skiing on our route down, wind loaded pockets and soft slabs were negotiable and non reactive to skier traffic. All in all great day out in the alpine with good early season conditions. </p>

Terrain Ridden

Alpine slopes, Mellow slopes.

Terrain Avoided

Steep slopes.

Snow Conditions

Wind affected.

Weather Conditions

Cold, Sunny.