Banff Yoho Kootenay

True spring variable conditions. Saturday we skied the south chutes, partly cloudy, warm slushy snowpack by noon. Sunday stormy and foggy. Skied dog leg with plenty of snow base available. About 10mm of rain overnight changing to 2-3cm of fresh snow continuously falling throughout the day. Could skin up from the parking lot but beginning to get patchy.

Walked with ski boots on for first 75m then switched over to skis and walked on a supportive refrozen crust up the valley on the shadey side of the creek. Surprisingly good travel up to around the water falls where we had to return to ski boots for a brief period of time. Rest of travel was excellent with a very dense consolidated snow pack on the glacier. Very good to excellent coverage on the glacier with no visible sags. We roped up closer to the top bench when snow pack got below 2m. The wind exposed slopes around 3100m had around 140cm deep of coverage. Top pitch was full probe deep - 320cm. Most of the glacier had a full 320cm probe with spots around 285cm. Lookers left side was shallower then the lookers right side. Powder snow skiing from 3300 down 150m to 200m. To 3100m Lots of visible wet loose avalanches in the valley size 1 - 2 other then direct norths. Lower elevation sun affected aspects are completely melted out. Things are going to change fast with the incoming temperature change. See Bens post for his take on things. Good skiing for late May!

Wet snow but supportive up to the waterfall. Patchy skinning on the shady side of the creek and dry hiking on the sunny side. Mostly dry going around the waterfall. easy travel on the glacier with 80-150 cm on the toe. An average 280 in the middle flat section. And between 100 to 240cm on the upper section The last pitch before the summit block we found 30cm with new settled dense snow on the crust. There was some small facets on the crust with 10cm of moist snow and 20 cm of dryer wind effect snow above. Another party turned around because they of it. On the way up ther was a 2 cm crust below 3150m on North aspects with dryer powder snow above. The crust was a bit hooky to start but softened up below 2800m. Below 2400m there was 20cm of mushy heavy snow on a supportive base late in the afternoon. Skied down patchy supportive snow below the waterfall almost to the road but that will not last long. Several wet loose avalanches up to size two over the last couple days on all aspects and elevations except high North. If you use the website you can add photos, the app isn't working as great.

Not to be outdone by Wardsbd for a late season MIN … hit Bell NE. First 400m of vert was hiking up to 1865m where we transitioned to skinning. We kept left at the lake as it seemed open on the right. Big avi overshot the cliffs and punched a hole in the ice a while back but it goes. Waterfall headwall was easy. Probed 250cm at the flats below Bell couloir proper. During the bootpack we got hit at times by snow snails that were gathering a bit too much speed and mass to our liking so hug left and/or time accordingly. Didn’t need boot crampons but nevertheless useful up the steep choke. Snow was wet up to the col but only the first few cm’s. We had mostly overcast skies and clouds were zooming by at high speed - if it had been blue sky and sun we likely would’ve bailed. Ski down was methodical. It’s still good for at least a week if not two but you likely want a better overnight freeze than we got. We were lucky due to the clouds. App has authentication problems so no pictures ...

Excellent skiing for May. The recent new snow has consolidated into a 5 cm chalky layer on top of the firm and well consolidated snow pack making for both good skiing and good travel. Decent freeze overnight inspired confidence. It stayed around 0 in the morning as the clouds were in and out. This is a great short tour with fun steep fall line skiing.

Rode the paths just north of Jimmy jr bowl. Easy valley crossing with gumboots. 10cm new valley bottom, maybe 18 at the top. Stayed sub zero, no need for skin wax. Constant snow all day but only a little accumulation. Surface froze pretty well prior to new snow so not bonding that well, crampons required on steeper slopes. Could still feel crust, not quite enough for face shots, hopefully can by tmrw. Light N wind with some moderate gusts, in low alpine at 1:30 some minor consolidation but not slab, at least not yet. Little vis, only one small sluff off the cliffs heard. HS 155 at bottom of paths, 240 treeline Little late but big shout out to the forecasting and rescue teams this season, thanks for all the hard work, even the roadplows too had their hands busy!

-1 amazing radiative freeze at the road at 6am. The creek is open and you can cross it at its month behind the lodge. We used ski crampons through the trees untill the sun was on the slopes for 30 minutes. Partially sliped into some wells going up through the trees. A couple thousand calories short and a couple hours short of sleep, and recovering from the flu brought me to a state of being delirious and then catamatose. 4 chocolate bars and an hour nap brought me back and gave the snow an hour ripen into the perfect corn. Delerium. +17C at bow lake parking lot at 1130 am. The are some small glide cracks and alot of creep on Jimmy junior so skip it if the freeze didn't happen. Some small cornices chucks fell off at 8 am. Don't forget to take a rest day or adjust your plan if the freeze didn't happen or the creek is too swollen the cornice is too big, or the slip hazard too great. If your doing a loop, scope your descents as west aspects are thin and the creeks are open.

Good freeze overnight but soft enough for easy skinning. Dropped the north glacier at 11am with perfect corn skiing, smooth as can be. Descended the mother's Day couloir below the glacier down to 2350m where it got steeper and became isothermic from the morning sun. 0c at 2950m but 11c at the car at 330pm West aspect are shallow from the winters wind and are more susceptible to slab avalanches in the late afternoon. It got warm and green housed between 3-4pm which started some convective flurries. Solar aspects with less than 1m of snow were isothermic at treeline late in the afternoon. Supportive in the trees at the end of the day.

Travel down to Peyto lake is pretty horrible but it still manageable the snow that we had on our travel in Thursday has completely melted out Friday afternoon on our way back to the car. The summer trail skin track has also melted out so a lot of hiking is required to get up to the toe of the glacier. Thursday CLR skies all day, with a good overnight refreeze making for somewhat fast travel to get up to peyto once we had finished bush wackin. 1200-1600 top 3-10 was moist on all solar aspects but things were holding up with light - mod winds from the west keeping things from degrading further. Habel N ramp surface was a mixture of sastrugi and MFcr above 2800. Topped out Mt Habel around 1630 to allow for things to soften up slightly more, incredible fun chalky/corn skiing on the way down back to camp. Overnight CLR skies and wind set us up with a very burly crust for Baker, waited till about 11 to let things soften with the fall hazards on the shoulder etc. Similar inputs as per Thursday with solar rad and clear skies top 3-5 moist on S, SE ramp and shoulder of baker at mid day, Along the ridge line there was a ginormous cornice detachment. East face skied really well with the top 5 being moist on top of a supportive edge able crust, triggered one size one Loose wet on the face just with surface entrainment of moist snow. Left the glacier around 3 all snow was isothermal on solar aspects with shallow snowpack making for very slow exit. A front came though in the afternoon and was causing havoc with the greenhouse not sure how much snow would be left now along the summer tail etc.

Bow lake made some interesting sounds on the morning approach, and with the afternoon slush we took the lakeshore trail on our way back. Travel in the canyon is good, ski crampons were almost mandatory in the morning. Trail might need to be rerouted in a couple places, bridges are falling apart fast. Travel on the icefield was perfect, fast in the morning, soft in the afternoon. Probed 300cm+ in multiple locations. NW route up Gordon is in good shape, only 10 steps of bootpacking required. Plenty of small wet naturals on steep terrain, but nothing out of the ordinary for this time of year.

Great day out on Hector! Coverage on the glacier is still healthy with probes ranging from 140 to 240 with healthy crusts that provided some decent resistance when probing. Though there are some thin looking windstripped sections near the top that we roped up for. Snow in the alpine remained dry through our travels. moving towards treeline around 1400 surface snow becoming moist leading to fun corn skiing bellow the waterfall. Glad to have started early, but didn'tfeel as if we where cutting it close. With warmer days to come may be different. Be aware that the bolted anchor that the hand line is attached to has had bolt come loose and fallen off leaving the chain hanging from one bolt. Not ideal for rapel. Fortunately there is another rappel station just up the snow slope on the face climbers right of the last bit to the summit. See 4th photo. It will require a 70m rope to rap off of though (shout out to the party from Jasper that summited with us that happened to bring one❤️)

Attempted Kindergarten Couloir today. Conditions in the couloir left a lot to be desired, and as a result we turned around ~2/3 the way up the couloir. The fan and a large portion of the couloir are riddled with frozen debris from recent wet-loose slides. Where there wasn't debris we predominantly noted a firm and supportive crust interspersed with pockets of soft, dry snow anywhere from 5-15cm deep. We also noted isolated pockets of wind slabs around 5-8cm thick and not overly reactive nor large enough to be of huge concern. In the couloir itself there was no bonding at all between the softer surface snow and the underlying crust which lead to quite a bit of sluffing with the few turns we did get. Despite a later start for this time of year (9am) it was around -7 in the parking lot and stayed in the negatives until we returned to the car around 1:30pm. The sun stayed behind the clouds for most of the day so solar effect in the couloir was minimal, and we only started to note the snow getting wet and heavy halfway down the trail from the lake.

Hilariously bad skiing on the fan of the couloir, we bailed pretty soon on the way up. Super hard and crusty with random pockets of soft wind slab and refrozen wet slide debris. Track in is a luge made of ice and pine needles.

North aspects held soft/dry snow with penetration to mid boot.

Lots of avalanche debris on all slopes around the lakes. 10cm of wet, heavy snow that really wanted to slide off of the crust underneath made for difficult travel. Dug a hand pit into the crust layer: maybe another 30cm that was not well bonded, but did not shear either.

Went up towards Cathedral via the south couloir then up to Cathedral shoulder to ski down the Trident. Ski crampons were very helpful. Ski quality in the couloir was variable and punchy. Not great skiing. First skier down popped a very small wind slab/cookie that ran surprisingly far (100m ish). The day was cloudy with winds picking up in the afternoon.

Large cornice partially detached threatening part of the line on cascade south face. We didn't see it the day before or in the dark in the morning. I'd avoid this line while the hang fire still exists. The ski quality was mediocre anyways. Triggered a couple size 1.5 sluffs up high on the fresh wind slabs, just the new snow slid. Observed a size 1.5-2 wet loose solar triggered slide later in the day.

Toured up Whymper north this morning. The track in was crusty. Turned to slush on the way out. The main run was wind affected the whole way up with a 3-5cm crust. The cornice at the Col was large but was easy to navigate around on the skiers right. The cornices on the peak to the lookers right were large and well overhung. We waited until around 1pm to let the the sun to give the snow some love. Overall descent snow on the way down. Minor slugging and grabby in spots. There is a lot of wind affect and old rubble from the side slopes.

Toured up Victoria upper to the base of the final summit push to N Vic. Probed over 300m on the glacier. Excellent coverage - no sags observed. We finished climbing the avi path by 11am and it still wasn’t wet. Ski pen on the glacier varied from 15-30cm - probed about 40-50cm over the prior bullet proof interface. Good skiing - some temp crust but very skiable. Avi path at 2:45 was 5cm cream cheese on top of hardpack. Of note - millions of tracks in Surprise and more importantly, E facing aspect across from Surprise ran loose wet again - this time to ground (see pic) -while we were touring and ripped some more timber. Quite a few tourists walking in the upper valley just below avi paths - some with kids. Skated whole lake back.

Cold day to start out with a few clouds but turned into a very sunny day with a little wind and got much warmer in the afternoon. Snow was getting significantly heavy and sticky in the afternoon but there were still some good sections above 2300m. Saw a size one avalanche from a day or two ago on the way up to Bow Peak.

She had no birth canal. We aborted Small settlement on isolated wind slab while traversing around the N aspect shoulder at TL. Some low density sluffing out of extreme terrain E aspect. No wind, rolling clouds and stable temps all day.

Easy fast travel up Chickadee valley. Worked our way up below Whymper North Col and where surprised to see a massive cornice on the col. I had never seen a cornice grow in this spot but this year it is huge (still passable on the lookers right). We continued up to below the Nunataq feature that splits the slope. New snow increased with elevation and initially felt good but as we climbed we noticed more cracking on the skin track corners and got a Whumph. We transitioned below the nunataq and dug a pit. We got repeatable easy/very easy results down 40-50cm on DF's. Good skiing up high but still dodging debris. All day the wx deteriorated and as we skied out it was snowing steadily (S2).

Varied but generally good snow in cobra couloir today. Snow ranged from good chalky avybed to dry powder to lightly sun affected chalk. Light-moderate shedding/ sluffing observered throughout the day.

Varied but generally good snow in cobra couloir today. Snow ranged from good chalky avybed to dry powder to lightly sun affected chalk. Light-moderate shedding/ sluffing observered throughout the day.

Weak overnight recovery. Fast travel up Noseeum Cr and the south facing couloir onto the plateau below Andromache. Lots of goat tracks up there. Low valley cloud but clear skies above in the morning. At around 1030 clouds started to build and move in. We roped up on the lower section of the Andromache glacier and probed variable depths between 110 and 260cm, the tongue of the glacier is scoured and there is some exposed ice. We encountered some thin wind slab building in the middle of the slope that was reactive but did not want to propagate (yet). Skiing was ok with a couple nice turns up high but we had limited vis. Exited through the slot canyon couloir feature. Lower elevation features where warming up and becoming isothermic when we left at 1230.

Skinned up right side of the creek through trees on an existing up track. We continued up to the back of the bowl, staying on the centre ridge. Snow was hard in the morning with a ~3cm crust, topped with a 1cm dusting of snow from last night. Wet slide remnants were see on the sides of the bowl. Headed down around noon. Had some ok turns down through the bowl on the crust. Skied out through the creek on fun melting snow, which turned heavy, wet and sticky by the bottom of the drainage. When the sun came out.

Started the skin track up Sunshine from Banff Avenue at 9am. Entered the slack country behind Wawa chair and skinned up the bluff right behind the chair. Hard crust underneath wet powder. The day was mild temperatures with minimal sun exposure. No immediate signs of avalanches. Stable conditions.

Jimmy Jr Peak 2026-04-11. Started at sunrise, a solid freeze down low -7c at the parking lot. Skinning up the gully was icy and slippery, ski crampons were helpful. In the alpine, the crust wasn't as thick so skinning was very challenging as ski crampons wouldn't bite well, we ended up just booting straight up the final 300m instead. It took a while to warm up so we took our sweet time on the way up, then we waited on the summit for over an hour. The sun poked through a bit but didn't soften the upper mountain as much as we wanted. +2c up here. A very firm ski for the top half, turning into nice corn lower down. Glad I had my edges sharpened! +10c at the car at 1:30pm. Coverage looks incredible everywhere other than west facing alpine slopes on the east side of 93n. Should be a nice long spring ski season.

Climbed White Pyramid and found edgeable crust basically the entire way. The river was frozen and supportive to skis, though the ice had opened considerably in the afternoon. Ski crampons were handy in places but not essential. Good boot packing conditions on the ridge and we found consistent 3m snowpack on the summit glacier. Broken sky felt pretty warm at times, but light to mod winds kept ridge top cool. Observed -2 C at summit at 1400, T10 -8C. We observed only one slough off the east facing headwall in the morning, but the cornices above are significant. Most of the paths along the west side of the creek appear to have slid in the past week. Cloud cover increased in PM reducing solar input. Skiing was mostly firm with chalky sections, hooky down towards the creek. Great views made the day.

Our group dug 3 pits at 2300m. 0-3cm ice crust 3-25cm moist round crystals (4 fingers) 25-50cm rounds (pencil) Thin ice layer 50-100cm facets (fist) One pit had PWL still apparent at 70cm, NE facing slope. 3 compression tests showed: No reaction M11, resistive planar collapse at 8-10cm H27, resistive planar at 50cm Turned All Moist eARly Afternoon This was part of AST2 course with Alpine Air. Thanks to our guides who wish to remain anonymous.

Pretty good refreeze overnight with a 7 am start from the car. Throwing on regular crampons and just booting up the waterfall made it go much quicker than fighting it. Ski crampons helpful for the top portion of the glacier. Didn’t do the rock step as it was a bit more involved than anticipated but other groups did without much discontent. Down low was plenty warm by the afternoon and from waterfall down was corny. Would not want to be riding that luge track in a big freeze. No real concerns of note, minimal wind and sun, pretty locked in snowpack, beautiful day all day long and good vibes at the Col.

Good travel up hector this morning with solid overnight freeze. Ski crampons helpful but not essential. Boot crampons handy for the summit block and for booting the debris below the headwall in the morning. Good coverage on glacier with some exposed ice on the steeper roll. A couple solar releases from steep terrain on little hector mid morning. Solid crust remained intact in the ALP descending from 2 to 3pm. A bit softer on the slopes below the headwall at 3pm, but very supportive. Picture of the slab release above the headwall. Likely the one reported earlier this week.

Made our way up the bench and through the trees above the drainage. In the bowl was soft snow on top of a dense layer made for nice turns. Beneath that was all facets. Skied out through the crusty trees down to the drainage which was well filled in.

-9C @8am Bow Lake Parking Travel through the trees and canyon was quick and easy in the morning. Not too many spots with running water yet. We didn’t get to the top of the canyon for the standard (summer?) route before skinning out into the trees towards our goal of getting to the saddle under Crowfoot. We travelled on the series of shelves to get the scenic view of the ice field. There was a stubborn crust in wind affected areas, but a new layer of well bonded snow starting at 7800ft made surfaces edgeable on the way up. No signs of instabilities or wet sluff on steeps. Leeward and sheltered surfaces held ankle deep powder that made the ride out the way we came very enjoyable. We rode down at 330pm from 9400 ft. The new snow got progressively wetter as we descended but never too sticky for a good time until getting back to the trees above the canyon approach. Bow Lake was still frozen solid and fast moving despite toasty late afternoon temps

730 am in parking lots -8.0. Travel btl was fast . Travel throughout the rest was difficult, ski crampons needed. Crust to ridge top. At 1315 Top 200 meters was dry , 5cms on the crust. The rest was great corn skiing. Top 5 to 10 moist but no entrainment in our ski line. Let the corn harvest begin.

Went chickaboom and looped back into chickadee valley to avoid the long walk out of boom. Overall travel was great, quick at valley bottom and an edgeable crust on the steeper sun affected slopes. Some good skiing on the north side of the glacier but some wind slabs had developed on the lower sections. Glacier itself is super filled in with no visible holes and 3m+ probed at the top. Still lots of evidence of activity in the most recent warm up with some slabs as well as numerous loose wets out of all aspects/elevations. Some recent wind slab debris was visible on some of the moraines on Whymper. Just another great day in the mountains

-7 at the parking lot at 8am. Supportive crust to 2350m. Glacier had ok skiing on a lot of soft windslab. The crust softened up a bit for some corn skiing below 2200m. Probe the glacier in two locations both 320cm+. Several sags in the glacier higher up and the bergschrund partially filled but easy to get around. Turned around at the schrund. Calm sunny weather all day with maybe one or two new size 1 wet loose avalanche from steep east aspects. Ski crampons very useful.

Skied whymper east face. Btl was fast travel , strong melt freeze crust . Evident Cycle from recent warmup/windslab. Wet loose and wind slab debris in majority of paths. North Col was decent travel until the top where it was hard slab(not reactive). Cornice is big but fairly supportive at the Col. on the ridge lookers right the cornices are massive and very overhung. Dust on Crust from summit until 1900 meter where it softened up and was good corn skiing. Lots of debris and gouging lower down and in the track. Multiple parties. One up the x, one on north Col and one behind us on east !

One of several parties to ski Hector today. The day started with a dense fog in the valley but gave way to partly sunny skies with a cloud lingering on the summit block that cleared by 2:00. The snow had a decent refreeze on the ascent through the waterfall section and lots of traffic made travel quick. The glacier skied decent with some wind affect, but didn’t notice any slabbing. The wind had picked up up on exit by 3pm and significant warming in the lower section, we noticed small wet slides pouring off the walls north of the creek and hastened our pace. Once through the waterfall section we noticed a large D2 wet slide that had likely just occurred covering many ascent and descent tracks. 2nd hand report from a group down climbing the gully confirmed the wet slide had occurred around 3:30-3:45. Luckily all parties descending were ok.

Did about 75% of Hector but low visibility and turn around time caused us to pull the plug. Very skiable on the way down still. No crampons or ice axes used but crampons would have helped for the crux. No signs of instability. Glacier looked well covered.

Wouldn’t say rapid …. -5 at start. Day time warming,.bottom of slope about 6C

4 days at Peyto hut, entered via Peyto lake, the normal pullout wasn't plowed so we descended from bow summit. Limited visibility most days with winds and light snow filling tracks quickly and creating wind effect. Huge cornices all over the place with evidence of failures pulling out slabs on Habel, Rhonda, and Baker. Skied, Habel north Bowl, Habel ridge, Tilley, and Peyto toe. Mostly clear but hot exiting via bow today, refrozen garbage below bow hut.

Toured up Andromache from the Hector approach and skied down Molar. No signs of instabilities today. Lots of tracks below little Hector - 2 groups today decided to go climbers left of the serac instead of the right hand version. Ski crampons useful at times in alpine. Gigantic wind lip to enter Molar line - we actually belayed one skier down to find a way to enter. No shrund visible this year - bare ice at toe of glacier. Slot canyon well filled in.

Toured up Andromache from the Hector approach and skied down Molar. No signs of instabilities today. Lots of tracks below little Hector - 2 groups today decided to go climbers left of the serac instead of the right hand version. Ski crampons useful at times in alpine. Gigantic wind lip to enter Molar line - we actually belayed one skier down to find a way to enter. No shrund visible this year - bare ice at toe of glacier. Slot canyon well filled in.

Skied Ramp Peak on Friday. There’s a good track leading up from the road to the bowl above Mosquito Creek Campground, so travel was fast. On the alpine slopes of the peak the snow was very wind hardened, leading us to bootpack the last 200m. Ski crampons would help immensely. There was evidence of the large avy cycle. The N aspect of Noseeum slide but didn’t reach the skin track. Picture included. Noticed older wet slides across the valley on the west side of the highway. Pinwheels as the sun came out and snowpack warmed. The snow was variable. On west aspects there was a melt crust forming within open trees, and heavy wind effect on anything above the tree line. NE aspects and sheltered areas were great, with roughly 10-15cm of unconsolidated powder sitting atop a firm snowpack. Snow on the peak was very variable; pockets of powder mixed with concrete hard patches of icy snow. Dug a pit at 2500m on a NW aspect before heading up to the alpine slopes. Snowpack was 220cm; 10cm of powder on top of 1 finger snow. Snowpack showed facets at the base, but was very consolidated throughout. ECTX CTN Weather was overcast and windy throughout the morning, but the sun came out on the descent. The sun affected the snow immediately, with rollers appearing on many steep slopes. We rode the drainage out, where the was many pinwheels and evidence of past avalanches on solar aspects. The skin track was wet and sticky on the way back as the day continued to warm and the sun was shining. Overall a decent day. Not sure if the skiing was worth the slog, but great views. The summit registry has joints, a lighter, and a butt plug; so something for everyone. Better get up there while they’re still there (if they are still there).