Lake Louise

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 !

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

Warm day. Cloudy and calm all day. We were in the south facing gully when the sun came out at 2pm which triggered wet loose cycle to size 1.5 below 2600m on polar aspects and pin wheeling on solar aspects. Got a later start and was forced to bail. Good skiing down on wet snow. Still supportive through the trees.

Attempted to ski kindergarten couloir. Low to moderate avalanche risk, with large cornices overhead. Started a bit late and only made it to the apron at 10am when it started to get noticeably warm. The apron was full of avy debris and large rollers (potentially from failed cornices?). Avoided the overhead hazard on the ascent into the coulior, however we noticed sluffing and either rock fall or cornice fracture during the ascent into the choke of the couloir. There was an overhanging cornice feature at the top of the couloir climbers left. Decided it wasn't worth the risk to try and ski the couloir. We skied the avalanche path on the other side of the lake which was heavy and crusty near the bottom and wind affected light powder at the top.

Skied surprise pass today. Snow was wet and isothermal up to around 1900m. Above 1900m we found around 10-15cm of light snow on top of a supportive crust. Travel was fast. The ski down exceeded expectations and we found the same 10-15cm of light surface snow covering a crust and old ski tracks which made for a very enjoyable ski down. Again below 1900m on the way down the snow became fairly heavy and crusty. Temps started at -4 at the car around 0830 and felt pretty consistent as we climbed up into the alpine, perhaps a bit colder in the alpine. Back at the car at noon temps were around +4-5 degrees. Skies were cloudy all morning and it started snowing lightly as we reached the alpine as well. Wind was more or less non-existant. In the alpine we noted some recent sluffing off of mostly solar aspects, but no recent slab avalanches. The snowpack also felt very stable both on the way up and on the way down.

Skied North Whymper up to the col. Light snowfall accumulating to a few cm in the morning, calm-light winds, warm day, clearing in afternoon with top 10cm of snow becoming moist at 2100m on Northerly aspects. Fast travel in the Chickadee valley with ~15cm over the crust. Dug test pit on open north treeline lee @ 2090m. Found a 50 of fist to 4 finger snow above crust complex. Down 50cm there is a 1cm knife crust then 8cm of 4F-F 1-2mm facets above a bulletproof 20cm crust. This layer produced sudden planer results on compression tests in the moderate range. House size cornices looming over the Whymper north col as well as on the ridge to climbers right made for nervous travel trying to work terrain to minimize exposure with the warming. Lots of loose dry off the headwalls and couloirs all day, in steep terrain sluff ran far. Below 2100m easy to entertain loose wet snow and start small size 1s.

Really cool area—100% worth the hike. The ride down, though, wasn’t anything special. Snow in the valley was fluffy and light, so I was pretty excited going in. The top of the saddle was wind-affected and a bit skied out, but conditions gradually improved as I descended, turning into surfy, heavier snow. I did a quick informal ski pole column test on the way up, and the top of the snowpack seemed very stable overall. That said, side-hilling on steeper (~40°) slopes felt a bit more reactive.

Group of us headed up to attempt Popes Peak. While skinning the moraine, a size 2.5 natural came down from the steep headwall. We ended up turning around given the natural activity witnessed. The snow in the alpine was wind affected - made for some tricky skiing down. Skiing out of narao trees was dust on crust - left a little to be desired.

High point was 2300m. Many size 2.5-3 avalanches from recent storm. Much debris making for challenging up and down travel. Lots of wind transported snow creating spin drift and filling in old crowns.

Supportive and fast travel up the summer trail to Panorama Ridge. Everything down low was frozen with 5cm dust on hard rain crust. The alpine section of the upper ridge skied reasonably well with wind pressed powder. Hooky unpredictable crust in the open mellow trees made for difficult skiing. Sun/temp crust not rain, I believe? No instabilities noted but we didnt test anything steep. Trident paths and Bell had not slid. Some big crowns off steep slopes at the back of the valley and along the ridgeline facing the TCH (photos). Fun day to see wierd conditions but ski quality probably not worth the slog.

Went for a walk up Lake Louise valley to check out conditions. Lots of activity from the storm cycle. Main paths on Fairview punch a hole in the lake. Very large slides off the entire S face of Mt Whyte. Skin around on the S side of the drainage now. Oddly Surprise Pass did not go very big. Just a smaller release put of the lookers right tributary from midway up and didn't come down far. Skinned up to the top of the trees at no surprise hoping the coulior and elevation might make things better but wasn't anywhere near high enough. Travel across the lake and valley bottom was good and supportive on firm refreeze but a few hundred metres up in the trees it started to be less supportive and breakable wet crusts. Dug a pit around 2300m and it was just soaked to ground. The top 20cm was a mix of rain crusts and snow but under that was 30cm of wet midpack then a metre of wet facets that somehow seemed even less cohesive that usual. Things felt pretty good skiing but digging that pit made me decide to turn around. Skiing was a bit punchy and tough but got better lower down as the crust firmed up. Looking around it seemed that most avalanche activity had come from around 26-2700m with very large crowns propagating wide and running to ground full length. Smaller activities from lower down seem to be more point releases that have just entrained wet loose mass. All aspects. Above 2700m couldn't see any activity. Very fat alpine but wind was extreme and moving lots of snow around. Honestly pretty stumped on conditions. Haven't seen a snowpack like that before. Hopefully the more mins the quicker we figure out where's good!

Afternoon clouds were welcome. Evidence of 2.5-3.5 avalanches off of unnamed and surprise pass. Moist snow down 10-20cm. Mix of breakable and supportive crusts. Our high point was 2100m.

Above 1900m there was 3 to 5 cm of new snow on a supportive crust which made for decent skiing. Below 1900m there was breakable crust over isothermic snow which was tough to ski. Isothermic at highway level (1600m). Convective flurries added a few cms at the end of the day.

Not much observed today. Heard a small whumpf at the start of the day but nothing else. Storm snow made for awesome skiing!

Well and truly skied out. The few remaining “untracked” sections turned out to be classic booby-trap snow. Every turn a gamble: float, punch or yank. Excellent conditions if you like forests full of burnt toast. 0/10

Hoping to find better snow in the sheltered trees here. Slightly disappointed as we made our way up by heavy snow sitting on top of a MFcr. Conditions got better as we made our way up and the snow became drier. We dug a pit before skiing back down. Found the Jan 24th down about 70cm. No results on this layer and no SH to be found. More relevant were the CT results on the facets down 15cm. These were inconsistent and in the moderate range but might become more reactive with this upcoming storm.

Toured up suprise pass, the day was nice with sun and cloud, as predicted by the forecast. All avalanche path from fairview and saddleback flushed during the last natural cycle. The snowpack is thin, and very wind affected. The ride down suprise pass was ok, but again very wind affected and hard packed (bulletproof conditions).

Went to Panorama ridge. Found facets and surface hoar at the Jan 24 interface in a flat meadow at 2200m. Tests failed sudden collapse down 40cm in the easy to moderate range under a slab that was 4F+ although the surface hoar is a bit hard to find in the facets. We did not ski the north aspect off of the ridge as a result of these findings although we did not find surface hoar with a quick look on that side of the ridge crest. We also dug at 2400m on the S aspect and found the Jan 24 crust down 40cm with an inch of facets sitting just above. Tests failed sudden collapse on the first hit moderate. We skied this aspect and had no results ski testing to 35 degrees. Tails would just scrape the crust. Gusty to the point of blowing us over on the top of the ridge with the winds moving a lot of snow and scouring down to the crust and rocks. No avalanches observed but the visbility was limited. Trail is in great shape.

Skied avi fan. Soft slab on top of solar crust. Sugar snow below crust. Lots of whumpfing, shooting cracks the length of ski, and some slope movement during uptrack. Did several hand sheer tests. Skied well close to trees, and no evidence of slab breaking away. Slab was soft in the warm sun.

Surface snow temp on the kindergarten fan was -8c air temp was -10c at 10:30 am Few hand pits on the way up, snow seemed soft on top for 10-20cm, decently bonded to the firm lower down

Busy skin track up to Fairview/Surprise Pass. We started late because of the hockey game 😭 so had a smaller objective in mind. Found good stability from the 10-15 cm snow on top of a hard crust. Snow started falling in the afternoon.

Beautiful day, we summit the Cathedral mountain with 2 other party I think, stability was great and the glacier was nicely filled I think, we end up skiing the vanguard couloir and the stability was great with the skiing was hard at the top but great at the end !

- 20c to start but soon warmed up to -10C in the alpine with light winds. 15cm of settle snow on the crust on solar aspects. We could still feel the crusts on some pitches. Ski crampons and bootpacking useful to get to the summit. A few loose dry to size 1 over the last couple days on solar and polar aspects some where goat triggered. 3rd person Down an East facing triggered a slow moving size 1 loose dry on the crust.

Good day in the sun - plenty of local skiers in all the avy fans, we could also see tracks up Whymper = great day for people to enjoy approx 4" of fresh snow on a crusty old sunbaked rock solid foundation. Uptracks were good, but towards the top they got tougher due to icy crust under the dust of snow. Evidence of small releases up higher in some of the avy fans, plenty of debris. Lots of great lines were skied out today, the stability was excellent. A few whumps on rollovers, nothing that propogated.

Decent riding, mostly 25cm quite settled powder, some spots a little more or little less. For the most part bonding to crust was decent. Only a hint of wind effect, nowhere near a slab. A decent loose dry had come out of X last snowfall if anyone was planning on riding that. Large cornice at the col, can sneak around for now. Large and less supported cornices on the cliffs climbers right. Would think twice before planning a trip, and definitely not if any loading or heating. Left our phones in the car or would've provided pics.

Average of 20cm new snow. Mostly good skiing with variable snow conditions. Sluffing had created isolated pockets of stiffer snow, 4F, overlying softer snow beneath. Some isolated wind loading in the cones nearer the top, 4F, 5-10cm deep. Mostly breaking off as cookies below the ski, but we avoided the untouched cones at the top. We did not top out due to some decent sized cornice. We did not observe any avalanch activity other than some dry loose out of steep terrain. Overall a great day, but definitely worth watching out for windslab developing near the top.

Went into Trident top down suspecting windslab near ridge top. Travel up the ridge was good, some sections of slippery crust under the new snow. Some wind skins and thin soft slabs building on top of a layer of fist snow on southern aspects isolated to ridge top. Ski cut the entrance to Trident and got a small soft windslab, 20cm deep, 15m wide, running 120m. We skied bed surface for 100m and then 20-30cm of fist snow the rest of the way down. We observed multiple small sluffs out of extreme terrain through the day and winds gradually picked up accompanied by minor snowfall towards the later afternoon. Nice temp inversion :)

Travelled up chickadee valley aiming for Whymper or Chimper Col, with the cold temps and clear skies (-25 in the parking lot) decided to follow the sun towards Chimper Col. Travel was quick enough through the new snow. Skiing was great down the moraines and open trees. ~30cm of new at 2500m, 20cm of new at the trailhead. Minimal slab properties with the new snow, slightly more on steeper slopes that had been sitting in the sun. No SH present in the Alp but some FC on old wind slabs buried 30-40 down. Several Na SS (maybe PS?) on easterly - southerly Alp in steep terrain. 20-30cm deep max 30m propagation. Numerous LD all aspects all day.

Went to check on the Panorama area and Trident today after the snow storm. -12°C at the car at 10am. 10cm ish new snow on the ski out and 25cm+ new snow above treeline. Same amount up to 30cm in trident but it didn't feel the best under the feet even though nothing moved on the way up or down. No cracks and no whumpfs at all either. Some small avalanches fell from the cliffs around a few times. No wind all day. The new snow felt a bit heavy.

Monday had perfect bluebird, calm, sunny ascent up Chickadee with 10+cm fresh, dry, light powder. Clouds started arriving 1pm. Descended off col towards Boom Lake. Cornice at col easily traversed. Descent through large well covered sags in upper glacier. Then skiers right to steeper descent through calf deep powder. Large cornices above. Visibility deteriorating. Navigated through cliff and steep sections to bench where we found a short section of wind slab. Sluff off of Boom. Snow started as we descended towards Boom Lake and then up to col back to Chickadee. First descent gully had previous powder turns. We elected to traverse to 2nd gully which had slid and was crusty (likely previous solar) and bulletproof avalanche debris. Scratched 100m or so and then elected to traverse further to next gully which had 10cm powder near bottom.

Good ski quality in the Bell couloir today. Probed 300cm HS at 2500m. PS 15 PF 30cm. Solid crust down 30cm (Jan 23?)made for some tricky skinning on steeper slopes. We opted to boot pack up to the convex roll. Observed a 15cm 1F soft wind slab sitting on the crust down 30cms. CTM13 RP and ECTN13 on this interface at 2500m. This result plus moderate winds in the ALP all day transporting the new snow and several sloughs from steep terrain on the wall to climbers right, led us to descend from the base of the convex roll. Ski crampons useful to ascend the short headwall after Taylor lake.

10cm on hard snow. Mild temps with light winds all day. Noticed the SH layer down 10cm at tree-line.

Triggered the storm slab on Schaffer bowl while riding across the convex roll. No one was caught. The slab was 30m wide, 10-15cm deep. There was significant winds on the ridge and 10cm fell over night.