Climbed to the top of the WI 4 pitch on Bourgeau RH today. The route is in thin early season shape with lots of scratching around at the topouts. We decided to bail on the last few pitches due to water running behind the ice and tedious travel on the thin topouts. -20 at the car in the morning but the sun still packs a punch this time of year and can quickly destabilize thinly formed ice routes. We were happy it wasn’t any warmer today and my guess is those routes will suffer over the next few warmer sunny days.

About 20-30 cms of snow up there with the occasional bit of wind slab in gully features but we felt the start zone was below threshold for larger avalanches.

A few cool looking pitches both left and right of the main climb that I haven’t seen formed before. We’ll see if they last the forecasted warmup.

Ian Jackson
Mark Herbison
ACMG Mountain Guides
Banff, Yoho & Kootenay Visitor Safety