Hector and Wapta

Brad Roach , Thursday 11th April, 2024 10:50PM

Out for past 3 days poking around classic Rockies objectives. Notable improvement in stability and travel conditions compared to last week. April 9/2024: Mt Hector. Poor visibility prevented us from ascending up the headwall. Due to the poor vis, we probed a lot of our uptrack and noted highly variable snow depth from 100-300+. One snow bridge in was found with a ~140cm bridge which indicated that there could be a few tiger traps on this popular route. No new avalanches observed and no signs of instability. April 10/2024: Ascended Rhonda Via Bow Lake, 10-15cm of new snow from a convective overnight treat. Snow stayed dry all day due to a cool wind and scattered clouds. One crown observed in steep unsupported terrain off Baker. Looked to be a sz 2 windslabs. Took a photo of the slots below Collie which is attached. Good skiing down Rhonda with no signs of instability. Snuck behind Gordon and found 250-300+ average snow depth on the glacier before dropping towards Balfour. While digging in for the night, Feb 3 observed at 2400m down 80cm.. April 11/2024: Climbed up and over Balfour. One large slot pushes the uptrack close to the seracs. Photo attached. Clear weather deteriorated as we ascended the col and was claggy and windy by the afternoon. Seemed to be more holes on the descent to Duncan. Headed down towards Sherbrooke and exit and found no signs of instability or new avalanches. Crust had formed on.solars, dry snow on Polars and below 2200m snow was moist. Good spring travel and conditions.overall but lots of new or growing number of slots made the wapta feel like the next Las.Vegas. West side of the highway is notably deeper and more stable than east side but in both cases it seems as if the avalanche hazard trend is dropping off. Still lots of things to keep in mind when venturing into glaciated terrain in the area however.