Athabasca

<p>Left the car at 3am, went with the intent to ski silver horn, took the right morain approach. the hike for the first 400m upto the first steep slope had between 10-30cm, trail was hidden. And some plunging between rocks higher up was inevitable. We decided to skin from there where snow was between 10-50cm hiding all the rocks. There wqs a 10cm thick rain or temp crust that ended up bieng present all the way to our high point(3020m before the crux of the ramp). Underneath that down low was wet snow as we got to about 2800m the snow under started to feel better. Trail breaking the crust was un supportive. Was just over ankle deep ski pen once through the crust. Alot of effort was required making our way up. Made the call to pull the plug. My partner was not feeling upto the task after fighting through previous conditions and exhaustion set in. Was only just before 8:30 and the heat came out full force on steep slopes the crust broke down within 20min leaving soft snow above a firmer layer.... The bonding seemed very well between New and old layers. I'm sure the ramp would have went just fine and maybe with abit of time the silver horn may have been skiable as well. Oh well another time. If your planing an ascent up those routes bring skis. The foot pen was waist or greater on the glacier and wallowing would be the name of the game. Depths from between 50cm to 3m were probed the average bieng about 150cm. Obvious holes were present and avoidable. There seems to have been a cycle during the storm, the entire east face to the lookers left of the ramp had gone, old debris under the silver horn ran remarkably far for what I have seen in the past. a size 1.5 slab maybe 2m deep pulled out under Andromeda east on a north east aspect( out intended aspect to climb and ski that day). All boundary and almost every aspect of every near by peak had loose wets and pinwheel ING going into the size 2 range. Back at the car by 10 and nothing had started to move yet. it likely would have gone fine for a summit and ski that day after time and heat had broken things in. Hope this helps anyone headed up there In the future. Attached some photos of conditions of sky ladder the the north face route of atha. Also the current Athabasca main condition. Either way was a great day out with a good friend. </p>

Terrain Ridden

Alpine slopes, Steep slopes, Sunny slopes.

Avalanche Conditions

30cm + of new snow, or significant drifting, or rain in the last 48 hours.

Slab avalanches today or yesterday.

Snow Conditions

Crusty.

Weather Conditions

Warm, Sunny.