Great spring skiing on Mount Cathedral on Sunday April 17th. We found 5-10 cm of dry snow on steep north aspects above 2300m which transitioned to nice corn skiing below and became isothermal below 1600m. We skiied north to the Trans Canada Highway through the Cathedral Crags North gully. There is now a bolted anchor for the rappel over the waterfall ice step. It is on the skiiers left just above the step and is marked with a red prussik cord (see attached photo). This year, the step could be rappelled with a 30 m rope (15 m rappel). A 40 m rope (20 m rappel) is nice to get you into lower angle terrain and will work regardless of snow levels.
We were finished by 12:30 and the snow was still holding up. I wouldn't want to be in there currently with the warm temperatures. Lots of evidence of rockfall in the gully from previous warm temperatures.
The valleys are dry and low elevation snow is melting fast - it feels more like mid-May conditions out there!
Ian Jackson and Tim Haggarty
ACMG Mountain Guides
Visitor Safety - Banff, Yoho & Kootenay National Parks
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