Regional Summaries

MCR Summary Coast Range, July 26

Weather
Hot and Sunny!! And looks like it will continue for the foreseeable future.

Conditions
Generally speaking alpine route are in excellent shape, rock is dry and the glaciers are still filled in to allow for great, straightforward travel...for now.

Summer is in full swing in the Rocky and Columbia Mountains!

WEATHER
Things have been heating up in the past week with hot and dry being predominant. At the same time we have seen some rapidly moving cold fronts creating lightning storms and wind events. For the coming week it looks like much of the same.

CONDITIONS
Overall trail conditions are good but vestiges of winter and spring can still be seen on high passes and along the continental divide with snow and muddy sections being reported on some routes.

Well summer is finally back in Canada, along with the mosquitos and no-seeums. This weeks cool temps and precipitation has brought snow across most of the Kootenays and Rocky Mountains above 2500m. I would expect on sunny aspects that it is disappearing fast. The weekend is looking hot with possible unsettled weather on Friday night into Saturday and isolated thunderstorms. With things warming up and melting out I would be anticipating rockfall, surface snow avalanches and whats left of cornices to be week.

As I write this the coastal alpine peaks are enshrouded in cloud and it’s below freezing on the summits. The weather the past week has been unsettled, with fresh snow in the alpine making for tricky conditions. Photos an experienced friend showed me from a failed attempt on Mt Tantalus on Tuesday looked like January, with lots of rime ice. He also noted that the crevasses were starting to open up since the previous week, but the bergshrunds were still in good condition.

In the North Shore Mountains there is still a lot of compact above 1200m, although very little below this.