Yesterday (May 3rd) I skied Surprise Pass with a Thompson Rivers University Adventure Studies group. There was a hard overnight freeze with some broken cloud cover in the morning, keeping temperatures cool until about 10:00am when the sun really turned on. Ski crampons were absolutely necessary to safely side hill into the Sheol Valley. The ski down from Surprise Pass to the back of Lake Louise offered chalky snow to start, turning to moist and corn conditions lower down. We were able to ski across Lake Louise at noon, with a couple hundred tourists that were walking around on the lake getting wet feet where they were punching through into a slush layer below the snow.

Fred Amyot lead another group to the Upper Victoria Glacier on May 3rd, with similar conditions.

This morning (May 4th) we aborted trips to Observation Sub-Peak and Cirque Peak, with light rain and a freezing level at or above 2500m at 4:30am.

Jordy Shepherd, Mountain Guide
Fred Amyot, Mountain Guide