Unity Peak
Banff Yoho Kootenay
brendan.clark , Sunday 18th February, 2024 10:00AM
Beautiful day on a very long tour to Unity Peak via Redoubt Lake. A relatively safe route with little to no exposure to serious terrain. Overall, travel was very good with trailbreaking being easy in most spots. The crux was the east ridge of Unity, which was wind hammered and had breakable wind slab. Thankfully not enough snow or angle to be concerned about a consequential slide. Managed to skin (with difficulty) to within 1m of the summit, then the ski down was better than expected on the bullet hard ridge snow. After dropping off the ridge, the powder in the trees was very nice. Only instabilities noted all day were the wind slab and small avys in steep rocky south-facing areas due to solar impact. Despite many kilometers of trailbreaking at and above treeline, I didn't experience the settlements and cracks that I've experienced further north in the Cirque and Crystal Ridge areas this year. Great day out, a highly recommended trip on a sunny day.
Source: Avalanche Canada MIN