The great alpine climbing conditions in the Rockies and Columbia Mountains show no signs of letting up. With cooler nights and sunny days forecast for the next several days, snow and ice sections should remain in good condition while any sun exposed rock will be warm and dry. This is definitely a good time to go climbing!
In general the current conditions for alpine climbing in the southern part of the Coast Range are awesome. It has been warm and sunny for what feels like forever, with only minor disturbances the past couple of weeks that haven’t affected conditions and expected to continue into next week. Further north towards Alaska a low pressure system is expected to bring rain and possibly snow up high this weekend.
All alpine rock routes I can think of are currently dry. There may be some precipitation today in the southern parts of the range, but this should dry up by the weekend.
Alpine conditions in the forecast region continue to be great overall. Our huge winter snowpack has held on strong providing unusually good glacier travel for this time of year. That said, this prolonged warm and dry spell is slowly taking its toll. In many places, there is not much snow left on top of the ice and having proper crampons and an ice axe are becoming mandatory.
The melting of the snow means that crevasses, bergschrunds and moats are growing and becoming harder to navigate. There will also likely be more rockfall as the snow continues to recede.
Its been one of the best summers for weather and general mountain conditions in a while. The big story is how good the snow travel is on glaciated terrain, and some areas still have lingering avalanche debris from the winter in features which extend quite far down in the alpine. These can be a nice break from the knee bashing scree if you can use them. Although the coverage is good for this time of year, crampons are becoming more and more a necessity as things dry up.
Current conditions are excellent for alpine climbing, with dry rock on all routes and enough snow left on the glaciers to make for good travel and bridged bergschrunds. Rogers Pass, the Bugaboos, the Lake Louise group, the Columbia Icefields and Mt. Robson are all in prime summer condition right now.
Amazing what a couple of weeks of warm weather can do! Approaches are all pretty much snow-free now, and while glaciers still have healthy coverage, it is getting thinner by the day, with the firn line (the boundary between between last winters snow and the lower-elevation exposed ice) getting higher and higher. Overall, in the South and the North Coast regions, glaciers and crevassed areas are still well bridged, and moats/bergschrunds are still passable, though starting to open up.
With a sunny and clear forecast for the weekend, things are about as good as they get for many alpine climbing routes. In general dry rock is present on all aspects, snow coverage remains good on most higher elevation glaciers, and so far the snow travel has stayed good early in the morning. This is a good time to go after bigger summer objectives.
The amazing weather continues. Thunderstorms and some rain in most areas for Thursday night, but mainly sunny through the weekend with good overnight freezes possible.
The big story in the Banff/Kootenay area and numerous other areas in BC are the forest fires, which have prompted some area closures. Check websites for the region you are planning on visiting for developments on these. As well, more than one party has been smoked out of their climbing objective in the Rockies this past week due to air quality.
It’s mid July and the alpine conditions on the Coast are looking pretty fine right now! The weather forecast is as good as it gets, with continued clear skies and no storms. With clear nights, reports are of good travel on firm snow in the mornings, but expect the snow to lose strength quickly during the day.
The weather forecast is looking good for this coming weekend in the Rockies and the Columbia Mountains. At this time most areas are predicting a cloudy night on Saturday with small amounts of rain but, otherwise, it looks like clear skies and warm temperatures overall.
Most if not all alpine rock climbs are now in good condition and have been seeing traffic. Rogers Pass, the Valhallas, and the Bugaboos are all in excellent condition. The snow is quickly melting off of the glaciers however travel continues to be quite good.
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