Jasper Visitor Safety were in the Peyto Glacier area from February 12 to 14th to train ski mountaineering skills. The team travelled on the Peyto Glacier, Baker Glacier, Tilley Peak and Peyto Peak.

The region received 10cm of new snow which was blown into small cornices and soft wind slabs by steady winds from the West. This new snow is sitting atop a variety of wind-affected surfaces and crusts at lower elevations and was sluffing on steep alpine slopes Saturday.

Bow Summit to Peyto Lake - Icy, very challenging skiing down the summer trail from the Bow Summit viewpoint.

Peyto Lake to Glaciology Station - The creek was easily negotiated with some rock-hopping. The snowpack leaving the lake is thin and firm, but easy travel on skis up to the moraine crest. At the top of the moraine, we boot packed firm snow and rock until we could put our skis back on.

Glacier Travel - Probing across the Peyto Glacier, we measured 80cm to 280cm of snow with an average depth of 180cm. Surface conditions were firm, generally ski penetration was less than 10cm and ski crampons were useful for steeper slopes.