I instructed a glacier travel and crevasse rescue course in the Columbia Icefields area June 25-26. Conditions overall were quite good.

We went to Parker's Ridge on Tuesday and it has lots of snow and good conditions for snow school and crevasse rescue practice at the windlip.

On Wednesday we did the North Glacier-Boundary Glacier traverse. We found good snow coverage on both glaciers. Crevasses were generally well bridged as long as you took care around the normal trouble spots. Foot penetration was mostly ankle deep in deeper snowpack areas even though there was no overnight freeze. Where it was less than one metre deep the snow was punchier with knee deep postholing, but this was short lived as long as you avoided the shallower areas. Crampons were not required, but this will change on the glacier toes as there is not a lot of snow overtop the ice there.

Other parties climbed Athabasca's N Face/NE Ridge on Tuesday, and the Silverhorn and A2 on Wednesday.

One thing I noted was that the seracs on the North Glacier seemed less active than in the past. Little evidence of icefalls, certainly nothing recent. We saw one size 1.5 loose wet avalanche that had run onto the upper Boundary Glacier, probably on Tuesday during that day's rain showers.