Today we skied the Pumpkin Traverse behind Lake Louise Ski Resort. This was a Backcountry Access ski guide training day with 5 skiers in our group.

The weather was mixed with a few spring snow cells moving through and short openings in the clouds, keeping temperatures cool all day. The wind was generally quite light.

There was 10-20cm of low density snow over a firm crust, with some buried windslab. The only avalanche activity noted was a couple spindrift avalanches off the upper tiers of the east face of Redoubt Mountain in the late afternoon, and one very small ski cut pocket of stiffening new snow over the crust (5m x 5m) at about 2600m while descending the northeast side of Unity Peak (see photo).

The travel conditions were excellent, and we did use our ski crampons on most of the ascents through the day.

Watch for the new snow that is on top of the crust and windslab to start stiffening and propagating when the sun is out and the temperature starts to rise.

We only saw one other group at the start of the Pumpkin Traverse, and they were doing a ski tour to Banff.

Jordy Shepherd
ACMG / IFMGA Mountain Guide