We are hitting our stride with current alpine conditions in the Coastal Ranges! Those brave (or foolish) enough to endeavour forwards despite unfavourable weather have, for the most part, been rewarded for our efforts. Another week of showery and unsettled weather has continued to prolong a rapid decay of the alpine snowpack and glaciers, which has made travel conditions fast and firm on the way up and great for quick glissades back down.
Still extremely snowy for this time of year, which can be a blessing and a curse. Most reports are coming out of the Rockies, with the snowline hovering around 2100m and even lower on shady aspects. That means there can still be snow found below treeline in July! The blessing is that after a good overnight freeze snow travel can be excellent and glaciers have great coverage over crevasses which will hopefully last most of the summer (fingers crossed).
It feels like summer has arrived on schedule. Snow is melting quickly in the big mountains. Thankfully there is already a lot of "water under the bridge" everywhere as there is still a sizeable alpine snowpack along the Rockies and Columbias divides.
Alpine climbing season has taken a quick holiday… but is returning soon!
Conditions:
Typical late spring conditions prevail in the Rockies and Columbias.
WEATHER
The Rockies have been drier than the Columbias over the past week, with showery weather prevalent in the western ranges for much of the week. Areas of the front ranges of the Rockies were mostly dry after a some heavy rainfalls last weekend.
It feels like the last week has been a blur and hard to believe the weekend is already upon us. Once again, good weather refuses to coincide with outdoor activities this weekend with plenty of rain in the last 24 hours and more forecasted thru the weekend. That said, our best window for decent weather may be Saturday. Overnight freezing levels look to drop to around 1800-2000m and "unsettled" may be the best word to describe the predicted weather pattern. Still, this afternoon the sun appeared for a couple hours and made for some pleasant parking-lot standing.
WEATHER
After a week of great weather, the weather is forecast to start deteriorating this evening with a wet weekend to look forward to across western Canada. Freezing levels will drop a bit, from 3000 m currently to around 2000 m. This could provide up to 15 cm of fresh snow, way up high in the alpine.
EAST SLOPES CONDITIONS
Apart from this coming storm, the Eastern slopes of the Rockies are drying out nicely and many of the scrambles and ridge traverses are coming into shape. Expect some snow patches on high N aspects and check for ticks when you get home.
As access slowly opens and we see more people getting back into the Rocky and Columbia Mountains, the biggest thing of note is the large amount of snow remaining compared to recent years.
Alpine climbing season seems to be upon us.
Conditions
In general very little mountain travel has happened lately, as we know from reasons beyond mountain conditions. However as of late more and more people seem to be returning to the mountains - where available.
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