5 days on the Wapta

Riding quality was:

Good

Snow conditions were:

• Crusty
• Heavy
• Powder
• Wet
• Wind affected

We rode:

• Alpine slopes
• Mellow slopes
• Sunny slopes

We stayed away from:

• Steep slopes

The day was:

• Cloudy
• Foggy
• Stormy
• Sunny
• Warm
• Windy

Avalanche conditions

• Slab avalanches today or yesterday.
• 30cm + of new snow, or significant drifting, or rain in the last 48 hours.
• Whumpfing or drum-like sounds or shooting cracks.
• Rapid temperature rise to near or above 0°C or wet surface snow.

Went in to the Wapta Icefield for 5 days on the 16/4, weather was clear and sunny. Snow becoming heavy and wet in the afternoon. Travelled from bow lake to bow hut.

17/4 weather was low cloud, up to 10cm of snow overnight. strong winds all day. Temperature rose during the day. snow went from dry to wet in the afternoon. no avalanche obvs due to low vis. Travelled from bow hut to Mt Gordon summit and back.

18/4 Whiteout conditions. Saw cornice growth from the winds while going up Mt Olive.

Again temperatures rose during the day causing wet snow in the afternoon. Travelled to Balfour hut.

19/4 extremely strong winds overnight and most of the day. Snow fall most of the day. The winds dropped by sunset and cloud base rose. First avalanche observation on NE slope, point release, size 1. We remained at Balfour hut and dug a pit on a NE facing slope in the afternoon, the snow was wet.

20/4 Clear skies, strong solar effect as soon as the sun rose. The snow was dry early morning and became wet as the day went on. Several avalanches occurred overnight/early morning. 7.30 am witnessed an avalanche up at the crux of Balfour col. While travelling back to bow hut we experienced whoomfing on the flats and getting up over the toe of the glacier. By the time we got to Bow hut and moved down through the canyon there were a large number of wet avalanches that had already occurred.

Glacier probed 250 to 280 cm of snow.

Travelling back to lake if you stepped off the skin track you broke through a crust straight into facets.

Overall we found good skiing up on the Wapta, we were conservative with our slope choices.