Mt Andromeda

<p>Mt Andromeda Ski (S ridge) - May 11 2019. 1650m gain 24.5km. 10 hours round trip. Currently you must walk from the far parking lot. Accessing the glacier toe was straightforward, no rivers yet. We had an excellent overnight freeze because of the clear sky! Temps were above zero until we gained the headwall. The coverage on the Athabasca Glacier was great, it's definitely better than it was last year at this time. We took the icefall route to avoid the Snow Dome seracs and it was filled in very well, there is no reason to risk the seracs at this time on your way up (it dumped twice on our trip up the icefall, and the Andromeda serac did once too - all in the dark!). Found melt-freeze conditions until about 2800m on our route - dry snow from there for the most part (some crusts on the south ridge but not quite full melt freeze yet). We bootpacked up most of the ridge since it was quite firm. The ski down from Andromeda was quite nice, although we were too early to enjoy corn snow until we reached the headwall again. Some natural slides ran onto the skin track during the day. We only saw a total of 7 other people on the entire Columbia today, strange considering the weather - on a Saturday, too. Not complaining though! TONS of natural activity throughout the day on the parkway, as expected with the avalanche cycle. </p>

Weather Report

<p>Clear overnight, around freezing most of the night- below freezing above 2500m until the late morning. Light winds with mod gusts from the W. Warming substantially later in the morning with some thin high clouds scattered around. </p>

Terrain Ridden

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

Avalanche Conditions

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

Snow Conditions

Crusty, Heavy, Wet, Hard, Wind affected, Powder.

Weather Conditions

Windy, Warm, Sunny.