Icefields Parkway Conditions

With mild temps, light inversions and clear skies, spent the last couple days enjoying the alpine views along the icefields parkway. We skied Mt Rhonda above the Wapta icefields on Friday, and Observation Subpeak Thursday. Evidence of an avalanche cycle from the warmup last week, old debris to size 2 on lee aspects, mostly looking to have been started by cornice failure pulling slabs on steep slopes below. We saw debris from these avalanches on The Onion, N & NE aspects of Cirque forepeak, on the upper fans between Bow summit and Jimmy Jr bowl, E asp of Ayesha peak, SE asp of Observation peak and Thompson, and a few other features with similar characteristics. (Extreme lee corniced slopes). Great visibility for the last couple days with consistent light-mod northerly winds, gusting to strong on high ridgetops like Rhonda. Light wind transport from the north. Zipper temperature crust exists to roughly the top of treeline, not affecting ski quality. In the alpine snow is very wind effected. Sheltered treeline is still holding good snow with ~20 of fresh on top of a very supportive midpack. We didn't find surface hoar digging at treeline around Observation peak, but only briefly looked. Lots of old rollerballs off of trees and rocks at treeline and below. Up on the Wapta between The Onion and Rhonda probed avg 250cm on the glacier. Travel across the icefields was fast and easy with firm wind effected snow making for easy trail breaking.