Mt. Columbia TR conditions
Some recent conditions reported by the PMCR (Barry Blanchard + Conrad Janzen) from ski touring on Mout Columbia just off theIcefields Parkway. This is one that has been on my list for years and already one failed attempt - hopefully next year.
A beautiful Peak (highest in the lower Rockies) and the apex of three drainages to the Arctic, Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Click for a better view.
Just finished guiding a great ski tour from Mount Clemenceau across to the Columbia Icefields along with Simon Robbins. We were able to climb Mount Triad, King Edward and Mount Columbia along the way, and enjoyed good travel conditions through most of the trip until waking this morning to 25cm of new snow with moderate winds at 2800m on the Columbia Icefields. This slowed things down but made for some nice turns down the Saskatchewan Glacier exit.
Four days of mixed weather and warm temperatures up high kept us moving and limited our climbing opportunities. This gave way to four clear and cold days with solid crusts down to 1800m and easy travel and climbing. Mount Triad offered good skiing off the summit on the NW side and good thick snow bridges throughout (3m+) on the 13th. King Edward was in good shape on the 14th with a solid crust and good crampon travel up the S face to reach the short snow gully on top of the E face which leads to the summit. The high route to gain the Columbia Icefields from King Edward has more snow on it than I have seen in the past at this time of year and allowed for good travel on a solid crust all the way from 1800m up to 3000m on the 15th. Mt Columbia was in excellent shape yesterday as reported by Barry.
Avalanche observations were limited to slides caused by daytime warming in the early part of the week when things heated up fast and stayed warm overnight. We saw no avalanches in the last half of the week due to the solid crusts to 3000m and well settled snow above this. Today we had very limited observations on the ski out due to blowing snow. I would expect some wind slabs forming at higher elevations and the usual sluffing and surface slabs in steep terrain until it settles out.
Good coverage on the glaciers throughout the trip with 3m+ above 2400m.
The Saskatchewan Glacier offered good snow cover all the way to the toe on its N side, and the exit through the morraines was about 40% walking and 60% skiing using winddrifted snow on the N sides of the creek banks. The old road out to the highway was still skiable in isothermal snow. It should last for a few more days to a week but is melting out quickly now.
Still great touring and skiing to be had up high when it clears up again. What a winter!
Cheers, Conrad Janzen
ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide
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I guided an ascent of Mt Columbia via the Athabasca Glacier, May 15-17. There is great snow coverage on the Athabasca Glacier and we were able to ski towing sleds from the toe. The road is not open as of today, May 17th, so you have to carry down, and back up, it.
We passed the first step of the 'Headwall' on the climber's right, the second on climber's left, and the third up the 'Ramp' on May 15th.
May 16th we skied away from our highcamp (3 kms south of Snowdome) at 5 am and got to Mt Columbia about a half hour behind my fellow guides, Conrad Jansen and Simon Robins, and their 4 guests. They were nice enough to kick steps up the SE ridge for us. The ridge has seen several recent ski descents (the face too). Great step kicking conditions and a nice calm time on top.
May 17th, 20 cms of snow overnight with moderate southwest winds. Whiteout navigation to the top of the Ramp were the wind had scoured out a lot of crevasse openings, portals to the underworld. Strong SW winds at ridgetop. We scooted out skiers left through lots of recent, and spooky, serac debris off of Snowdome. Those seracs seem to be quite active, and big, as of late.
Happy trails,
Barry Blanchard
Mountain Guide