Just finished 5 days at the Columbia Icefields, mostly instructional sessions with an ascent of Boundary Peak today, June 28.

Temperatures have been warm with nowhere near a freeze at the Parkers Ridge weather station the entire time I’ve been here.

Last weeks storm snow, which probably totalled close to 80 cm, has disappeared below 2700 m. The glacier tongues of Athabasca’s north glacier are ice again, after having good steps in snow there just a few days ago. The traverse to Boundary Peak is mostly 10 cm of snow on ice, except for the crevassed section which has just enough snow to obscure the crevasses but not enough to bridge them.

A team descended the Ramp on Athabasca at 9.45 AM and it looked sloppy already. They triggered two small wet loose avalanches on their way across. Crevasse bridges around the Ramp looked reasonable, covered in avalanche debris.

There is still quite a bit of snow above 2800 m on all the surrounding peaks including the front ranges but if this keeps up we will be losing it fast.