All of the alpine climbs we were interested in this week seemed to have too much snow to be in reasonable condition, so we decided not to fight it and go ski mountaineering instead. We climbed up the NW glacier to the summit of Mt Begbie and skied down the NE glacier.

Snow conditions;
- Good hiking with some snow patches starting at 1450m, then skiing from 1700m on continuous snow.
- Above 2000m it was a mix of supportable crust on skis/boots and breakable. A few sections were up to knee deep on foot, but for the most part it was good step kicking.
- Skiing down was mostly good on soft consolidated snow, with a band of breakable crust between 2400-2000m at 10:30am.

Avalanche conditions:
- No recent slab avalanches observed, just recent loose wet triggered naturally and by cornices up to size 1.

Glacier conditions:
- Good coverage on glaciers and crevasses were straight forward to navigate
- No sign yet of the big bergschrund below the East Col

Wildlife:
- We saw Ptarmigan, Grouse, goat tracks, bear tracks (near campground), wolverine tracks, porcupine tracks.

Photos:
1. Mt Begbie from the North, showing the normal climbing route up the North Ridge still very snowy.
2. Rock step to access the NW glacier
3. West Ridge of Mt Begbie
4. East Ridge of Mt Begbie from the East Col

Hope you're having a good spring!

Alex Geary
ACMG Mountain Guide