Lake Louise To Johnston Canyon (3 days starting Jan 31)

<p>Originally planned to do the traditional Sawback Traverse from Lake Louise to Norquay but due to weather and heavy snowfall exited early via Johnston Canyon. Jan 31 started at Lake Louise resort, went through Redoubt Lake, down to Baker Creek and then headed towards Pulsatilla Pass. Found low but supportive snow for the most part (at least better than expected). We were able to ski to 1900m directly in the drainage before there was too much open water. The skiing in the trees down to Baker (1790m) was around 50cm HS but had ok support. The rest of the day was a bush whack just below the far northern avalanche paths of Mount Avens with less than ideal snow coverage. Feb 1 - Snowed about 10-15cm at camp (about 1900m) overnight. Went over Pulsatilla Pass and down to almost Luellen Lake for our second camp. The trailbreaking/new snow became deep starting on the north side of Pulsatilla around 2100m, ski pen up to 40cm unless you found an unbridged facet section where it could be up to 60+cm. Once at alpine the winds were horizontal directly blowing at us, 0 ski pen but near whiteout conditions until up and over the pass at 2300m. Got 20 or so turns in down from the pass in excellent deep snow. Then slightly downhill trailbreaking in deep fresh powder until camp 1.5km north of the Luellen Lake turn off. Feb 2 - more snow than I cared to measure fell on our camp overnight. Dug the tent out 4 times (the 4th time was directly after clearing it for the 3rd!). Very warm overnight. During breakfast we heard 4 separate large avalanche events nearby but no visual. We followed the summer trail out via Ink Pots/Johnston Canyon with knee+ deep trailbreaking until reaching Larry's Camp where there was an old skin and snowshoe tracks which helped a bit. Lots of whumpfing and shooting cracks the whole way. North of Pulsatilla Pass we noticed that many of the slide paths had previously avalanched to or near their max runout, debris were old and slightly covered so I assume they went during the last big cycle. South of the pass seemed like a different story but we could only see the lower runouts so hard to know. This morning we heard some events and we assumed that the new snow was the final tipping load. The snowpack in the general area seems to be slightly bridged facets/depth hoar and only in the 1m range at best. The bridge helped with travel but the new load created a trailbreaking nightmare.</p>

Terrain Ridden

Mellow slopes.

Avalanche Conditions

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

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

Slab avalanches today or yesterday.

Whumpfing or drum-like sounds or shooting cracks.

Snow Conditions

Deep powder.

Weather Conditions

Warm, Cloudy.