We just finished a week in Mistaya Lodge by skiing from the Wildcat Basin to Bow Lake via the Baker - Trapper col.

Conditions in the alpine are currently quite good with 5-10cm of new snow overlying a hard, mostly smooth crust in all but the most wind affected areas.

Coverage on the glaciers is variable as usual with anywhere from 150cm to 300+cm on the usual ski lines between Peyto and Bow Hut. There have been numerous large cornice failures recently, but they have not been triggering the deeper weak layers that have been mostly dormant in the last few weeks.

We saw numerous, natural avalanches (mostly solar triggered)up to size 1.5 failing on the February 16th layer which is now down 25-40cm depending on orientation to wind.

The Bow Canyon had seen lots of snowballing but no real avalanches despite the hot afternoon temperatures yesterday.

Despite conditions being quite stable, we were avoiding shallow areas, large, unsupported slopes (above cliffs) and steep solar aspects later in the day.

Even though there has been a temperature inversion the last few days, it still felt more like winter than spring above 2500m.

The photo is looking towards Bow hut from the Baker col.

Have fun,

Marc Piché
ACMG Mountain Guide