Close to 10 cm of new snow on my deck in Canmore this morning has done nothing for my "spring" feeling:) But, conditions were excellent in the Elevation Place climbing gym.
After a long cold snowy winter, the public avalanche bulletins have all gone to spring messaging and we are back to weekly Mountain Conditions summaries for the Rockies and Columbia Mountains till sometime in November.
Currently in the Rockies good skiing can be found above 2100m with a supportive base, not a lot of wind effect and good travel conditions. Below 2100m the snowpack tapers quickly and access down low is still very thin. There are several ice crusts present in the lower snowpack including the prominent Nov 12 crust. These are not a problem yet but will be worth watching in the future to see how they behave. The cooler wetter conditions this summer have left the glaciers in a bit better condition than some recent years.
After a pretty fine early start to winter it is feeling like the autumn doldrums have set in. Warm enough to rock climb in the sun in very specific places and times, bits of climbable ice and mediocre skiing in high shady places. But generally it is a good day to go to a Remembrance day event and stretch the limbs for when it gets good again.
Warm weather over the last couple of days in the Rockies has put a hamper on any waterfall ice climbing potential. Some climbs way up in the alpine may survive the heat but overall most climbs are not in. In fact on the front ranges it's been great rock climbing conditions. For those venturing into the bigger mountains to ski and climb, there is roughly 60-70cm at tree line near the divide and about 100cm in the alpine. Some wind events from the past few days have reduced the ski quality and added isolated windslabs to the problem list.
Ski reports are continuing to trickle in from the Rockies and Columbias, and a few people have been out swinging ice tools in the Rockies...so despite the good mountain biking in the Bow Valley over the last several days, winter has officially arrived.
Winter continues to tighten its grip on the Rockies and the Columbia Mountains. Still very limited sources of information but it is possible to at least make some educated guesses about current conditions.
Perhaps because of the cold, grey weather and scattered snowfalls there is even less reports than usual for this time of year. After some sleuthing this morning it sure seems like we have had a recent avalanche cycle in the big mountains and that may continue over the weekend. Lots of September/October snowfalls and some recent high winds so it shouldn't be a big surprise.
Well, it is kinda cold, kinda grey and there will be some precipitation over the weekend.
Not enough snow to ski except on the sheltered glaciers where the light will likely be flat or non-existent and the crevasses are not well bridged.
The rock will likely be cold and maybe damp, maybe icy.
There may be ice forming in the alpine but it may be hard to scope in the greyness.
Low elevation scrambling, drytooling and climbing gyms have some merit. Eating turkey and giving thanks for all the excellent conditions we sometimes enjoy has some merit.
The snow line has been creeping up in the last few days on solar aspects but looking at the forecast it seems that this might change again before the weekend. Saturday looks to be bringing varying amounts of rain/snow over the entire forecast area and Sunday looks consistently dryer and cooler throughout. Precipitation amounts vary widely but at this time it looks like about 5mm in the lower Bow Valley and up to 16mm along the Divide and Columbias.
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