West Side 93N

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

-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

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.

Did a lap of flower couloir followed by dogleg couloir this morning. Skiing conditions in both were excellent. Flower is likely skied out by now as we witnessed 8 people ski the line including ourselves. As we made our way back to the parking lot the snow quickly changed to dense heavy slush at tree line. Took advantage and had a quick snowball fight. Overall great day!

Attempted the Mistaya Traverse but decided to play safe and turned around before skiing down towards Chephren Lake. Fantastic views of Howse Peak, Mount Synge, Midway and Stairway Peaks.

260-480 HS on the Icefield. 20cm F, progressive snowpack, turns to pencil in a meter. Overall very good coverage.

First, thank you to the highway crew for opening up the road. It's the most snow I have seen on the parkway for a while. There were really strong winds blowing from east to west all morning with a lot of blowing snow at ridge top. On the glacier above the hut, I probed 285 cm @2700m. Wind affected snow everywhere except in sheltered areas but still enjoyable skiing. It was the first time I had to step down to get into the Bow hut. I finished shovelling the deck and whoever peed all around the front porch you are a filthy animal.

Skied west bow/peyto trees. 2000m-2350m. 320cmHS @ 2290m. minor wind skin at TL and above, L gusting M West winds. clear -> broken Sky. Results - CTM 17 RP down 112 on Rounding F sz 1. (suspected Jan24) CTM 15 (RP) down 65 on F sz 1. (Mar 21) Observed the Crown of a previous sz 3 Avalanche on NW ridge of West bow. large cornices along ridge top. Great quality skiing.

Extremely good conditions on the south end of Bow Peak yesterday. Some of the best snow i've skiied in a long time, and great stability. Dug several pits over the course of two days here and could not find any significant layers, and could not get a failure down 1m or so. Some wind slab in the couloir, but no more than 3-4" and generally scattered, not widespread. No wind effect to speak of. Bootpacked into the upper funnel and skied the line to the trees, excellent consistent snow the whole way. Temps remained cold for us, but i'm sure things will change when it starts warming up again.

Skied a line in Jimmy Jr. Bowl. Snow quality is great. Pretty tracked out by now. Climbed up the trees to end up at the West Bow Peak slide paths. Dug a pit (on pin location) the PS was down 100cm. CTN, ECTX and the interface at the PWL when forcing the column off was non planar and seemed to have slowly started bonding. Ski quality on West Bow Peak was also fantastic. Light wind effect in the alpine area but still very skiable. Enjoy the good snow!!

Peyto Hut March 11-13. Observed remote triggers on approach as reported by prior party, we picked a line through a treed shoulder to the rocks to ascend Peyto moraine, but did not feel comfortable returning via this route so exited Bow. Day 1-2 was snowy and storming, wide-spread wind affect. Day 3 cleared and we observed a moderate natural cycle beginning with assumed propagation on the persistent layer in lee and cross-loaded areas. Opted not to ski any objectives per Considerable forecast

ECT 29 down 95 sudden planar on .5mm FC expect Jan 24 PWL. Brent Peters Mountain Guide PeakSTRATAGEM.com

Skied the lookers left avalanche paths on bow peak. Everything below 2000m had a crust underneath the storm snow. Above 2000m it was perfect skiing. We didn’t reach all the way up to the head wall because of whiteout conditions in the morning. However we got to the top of TL and there was no recent wind effect. Dug down to check out the PS which while still visible seemed well bonded and produced no results in a CT test. Enjoy the snow!

Attempted to get in to peyto hut but turned at the moraine. Had one wumph while gaining the moraine from creek bottom and then remote triggered a 1.5-2 from 60M away (First Photo shows skin track). Failure on the persistent slab varying from 20-50cm thick. 2 other size 1.5-2 spotted from presumably yesterday or overnight (second photo), both looked to have failed on the persistent as well but didn’t get close enough to confirm. After triggering the remote attempted to ski cut more of the slope while roped up but no success

Skied the glades today. It was around 0 degrees at the cars, -2 at the top of the runs. Snowed all day with low visibility. Wet, heavy and sticky snow throughout the trees. We stayed in the trees on mellow slopes. Witnessed two natural avalanches off BowCrow, so stayed away from any overhead hazards. Still lots of good skiing if you stick in the trees. Lake/creek at north end is open, but travel across it is good.

Skied open trees and gullies below the Bow Summit viewpoint. We counted on heavy ski compaction to have broken up the Jan 24 surface hoar on these slopes. Found good settled powder conditions in sheltered treeline, anywhere exposed to wind was hooky and unpleasant to ski, though we didn't step out into the alpine. Saw a number of old crowns above Bow Summit to size 2, noted a size 1.5 triggered today by a separate party on a convex windloaded roll just above the bow Summit viewpoint trail, roughly 40-50m wide, 10-30cm deep, judging by the tracks it looked to have been triggered from the edge of the roll by skiers traversing left around it.

Wind-affected snow In the alpine Sunny enough to cause some solar warming

Attempted to get to peyto hut. Powder was too deep and hindered approach. The next day was beautiful blue skys. Didn’t get to ski anything. Just skinned down the moraine and out.

Skied crowfoot glades. 10-15 cms in the parking lot at 9 am. Mostly light winds/warm and S1. Forecasted winds did not pick up until 3 pm. No signs of instability in the trees. Avg 45-50 cms of fist snow on supportive. Heard numerous audible avalanches that lasted 30 seconds plus (suspected cornice triggered windslab coming off headwall of crowfoot.) Skiing was almost to deep for angle of terrain. March is going to be awesome.

Plan A was to go to Bow Peak but we bailed on it when we saw the conditions on the Parkway and headed to Crowfoot glades. -6°C at the car at 10am. 30cm+ of new snow in this area with really strong winds and a lot of snow transport, first in the alpine and later down to the valley bottom and the road. Lots of natural avalanches and sluffs around all morning. We could see all the summits and ridges on the Parkway being blown away by strong winds all day. The snow was deep and powdery, amazing skiing in the glades.

Plan A was to go to Bow Peak but we bailed on it when we saw the conditions on the Parkway and headed to Crowfoot glades. -6°C at the car at 10am. 30cm+ of new snow in this area with really strong winds and a lot of snow transport, first in the alpine and later down to the valley bottom and the road. Lots of natural avalanches and sluffs around all morning. We could see all the summits and ridges on the Parkway being blown away by strong winds all day. The snow was deep and powdery, amazing skiing in the glades.

Party of two skinned up to crowfoot glades. Saw parties up in the glades, and saw several skiers in the bowl above the moraine. Today was sunny with moderate wind and strong gusts up in the alpine. Enjoyed 15-20 cm of fresh snow that made for excellent skiing in the glades. Due to the cooler temps the snow was soft and light (fist). Did not see any signs of instability where we skied. Heard a loud rumble around 1:35 pm and looked up to witness a powder cloud coming off of Crowfoot mountain. Suspected cornice failure from above which fell onto one of the fans and triggered a small size 1. It did not run very far.

Rode the stem today. There was about 10 cm fresh on top of hardpack, which made for a good boot pack. Bit of sluff occurred down the couloir. Conditions were more slab like near the top of the stem. Visibility into the petals was minimal so we did not venture further.

Spent most of the day in a blizzard, with flat light and near whiteout conditions. Sun poked through once or twice. Snowed 15-20cm over a crust, made for great skiing, but a lot of slough coming off of the upper cliffs and the steeper slopes had some skier tiggerable dry loose that didn't propagate anywhere. Overall a great day!

Observed a natural size 2 coming down the gully right in the center of the picture. Visibility was poor, but we could see a subtle debris outline with the naked eye.

Explored the Patterson access route through delta creek. Good Travel up to the canyon was fast and supportive Bad Poor ski quality breakable crusts, on exit and a avalanche fan we poked around Ugly The boot pack up the canyon was variable( some bullet proof, some wind crusts, some facet to ground and no clues on the surface) After the 1st section the traverse was wind hammered not easy to kickstep into. Boot crampons would of been needed turned around here

Attempted cirque to chephren lake traverse today( guild book say mistaya traverse) Crossed at waterfowl out flow no concerns Travel through the trees was rugged, but supportive, lot of tree rain.(make sure you ski edges are sharp) Travel in the open fens and areas with no tree canopy has 1cm of fresh convective snow, with a sun crust underneath( thickness depends on how much sun it’s gets in Feb) ranged 0.5- 3cm in thickness creek bridges were supportive Both lakes had ski pen to boot ankles supportive otherwise Weather convective flurry’s were stuck around the head walls, not much was making its way down until at the lakes maybe a couple cms Was not able to complete the traverse, turned around at the head of cirque lake ( flat light, low vis for overhead hazard assessments, plus saw constant stuffing off the head walls, with one size 2 with a bunch of rock and ice entrained ) no cleared parking at the campground had to use the viewpoint pullout as our starting point Bonus got to see some lynx prints

-18 at the car @ 8am and -2 at 12.30. very cold moderate winds in the valley early on but calm once up high. fast travel from top to bottom yesterday with great travel through the canyon and mostly hard conditions above treeline. glacier coverage mostly good. ~80cms at the toe increasing to an average of ~240 higher up. and some soft blown in powder for the way down. luge track on the way out is in decent shape too.

Party of 4 went for a tour up into Crowfoot glades. Saw two other large parties in the area. Heavy wind affect seen in area. Snow was variable and ranged from firm powder to bulletproof crust. We skinned up through the valley and gained the bench for some views then skied down through the trees and into the drainage. The best snow was definitely in the sheltered tree areas where the wind didn’t have as much of an affect. On the way up into the glades we saw a pillow that must have collapsed during Thursday’s warm up (image attached). Around 1:30 pm we witnessed a small chunk of cornice release from Crowfoot mountain and land on one of the fans. A size 0.5 dry loose was triggered on impact but only ran 5 meters before stopping.

Mostly thin crust, but powder on higher slopes. Size 2 avalanche seen from a distance, likely from an above cornice.

Hard a very large and loud whumph and settlement at the crux of the moraines on the Peyto Hut approach. Very wind affected. Backed down and went 200m climbers right and ascended a slope w trees until we could hike up on rocks to avoid the slope. That tree ridge also had the SH layer down 20cm and was very easy to slide in hand shears but was manageable in trees

AST2 group with UCalgary Outdoor Centre