Hi all,
We just finished guiding a unique tent based ski traverse in the heart of the fabled Jumbo Wild April 10-16. This high-level route is located at the headwaters of Jumbo creek and Glacier creek in the Western Purcell mountains. Our route travelled across the Truce/Horseshoe glacier area, Jumbo Pass, Glacier Dome area, Starbird Glacier and finally the Macbeth icefields in a complete counter clockwise loop. Along the way, we summitted & skied Truce Mountain and Mount Fleance. We made a valiant attempt on Eyebrow Peak on April 13th however, we turned around 130m from the summit due to high winds & fresh wind slabs. Our route was approximately 85km in length with roughly 8000m of vertical including the various side trips along the way. We accessed our starting point by helicopter and skied out.
The weather was Spring like & unsettled however we benefitted from very nice weather on April 10, 11 & 16. The area received 30-40cm of new snow throughout the week and winds were very active specially on April 13 & 14th ranging from moderate to strong (Southeast to Southwest) in the Alpine. Temperatures were seasonal and very comfortable, freezing levels hovering in the 1700m range most of the week. We had great travelling conditions in Alpine with excellent powder skiing on most aspects depending on timing. We travelled on supported terrain avoiding shallow snowpack areas. Coverage on the glacier was generally deeper than 300cm and crevasse bridges were showing no signs of sagging yet.
The snowpack was in typical early Spring conditions with an average of 300m of snow at treeline. Surfaces ranged from firm crusts on solar aspects to mid calf powder on Northerlies. The April 13-14th storm spiced things up and created localized wind slabs up to 40cm deep on steep Easterly alpine lee slopes. These were reactive to skier traffic to size 1 then but quickly settled out. We definitely saw evidence of the March avalanche cycle however we did not see any new deep persistent slab avalanche releases. We saw various new cornice failures, storm slabs or wind slabs avalanche to size 2.5 out of very steep alpine terrain which was easily avoidable. Of note, creeks are opening up quickly below treeline and becoming tricky to cross.
All in all, a fantastic trip despite the typical unsettled Spring weather.
Happy Easter!
David Lussier
acmg mountain guide
&
Ali Schroeder
caa level 1
