Matier Glacier

freeheelingbc , Sunday 19th January, 2025 7:15PM

Climbed up Matier Glacier toward Spetch using climbers right route up from the top lake. Remains of numerous wet loose slides, size to 1.5 in most gullies and couloirs on south west aspect Joffre shoulder closer to the lake and climber’s left moraine. On higher elevation Joffre shoulder and Peak, all the couloirs and gullies had small .5 dry sluffs- likely from wind transport and loading of the most recent few dry centimeters that fell after the big temperature inversion. General snow conditions on the glacier were maliciously variable, hard wind crust and sastrugi to could transition within 1 meter to blower pow and back again to breakable crust. Every step was different from the last. Some areas wind blasted, others filled by wind transport. Quick probe at Min report waypoint showed HS over 300cm, with a few ice layers mixed with less cohesive snow in the upper 60 cm of snowpack and generally getting more cohesive with depth. Seems nicely right side up. Some concerns for the future, when the next storm cycle comes in, are a cold and faceting surface and near surface layers, that in some areas exists with a significant crust that may also have a weak and faceting layer of snow underneath it.