Seymour three peaks

<p>After sleeping in and ditching more ambitious plans due to deteriorating avalanche conditions on the sea to sky, we decided to do a "lazy" easy day on Mount Seymour. It's been a while since either of us had been to Seymour and it certainly turned out to be far from lazy. We left the trailhead towards Brockton point around 9:30, staying mostly on the marked trail until passing the branch to suicide bluffs. From here we ventured slightly off trail onto steeper terrain but always staying parallel to the trail until reaching the first peak. Snow up to here was crusty and hard and we had crampons on the whole time. No signs of instability. Max slope angle to this point was about 30 degrees. To avoid the well trodden path up to the first peak, we ascended a steeper slope (45-50 degrees?) just west of the marked path. The snow remained stable here. Soon after we headed north towards the second peak, and observed cornices on the north facing aspects. We encountered steep, very crusty hard slopes between the second and third peaks. From the top of third peak looking towards what was either runner peak or elsay peak (I'm unclear which we were looking at), we were able to see some signs of slides on the steeper South/South West faces. On the way back we dropped back past the first peak. Snow was still stable but starting to soften. It was around 12:30-13:00. In search of steeper slopes to speed our descent, we wandered what I believe was West of the actual trail and proceeded to descend a very steep (60 degree) slope. At this point, snow had softened and I was postholing hard. My partner, who had taken off the crampons earlier found it easier or perhaps inevitable to glissade down this slope triggering a small ( <10m) slide of loose snow. We continued our descent down this slope carefully traversing, encountering two wells of deep water on the way. Soon we were relieved to encounter hard packed snow on mellower terrain and rejoined the marked trail. The rest of the return was uneventful and snow remained stable until we returned to the parking lot around 2pm.</p>

Terrain Ridden

Alpine slopes, Mellow slopes, Convex slopes, Steep slopes, Sunny slopes, Open trees.

Avalanche Conditions

Rapid temperature rise to near zero degrees or wet surface snow.

Snow Conditions

Crusty, Heavy, Wet, Wind affected.

Weather Conditions

Wet, Warm, Sunny.