I returned yesterday from a 3 day "Little Wapta Glacier Trek" via Bow and Peyto Hut Saturday.
The weather was relatively cold and largely cloudy with frequent snow showers and low visibility on the glaciers, except for Monday, when we woke up at the Peyto Hut to mainly sunny skies, which lasted until early afternoon when showers kicked in again.
We found up to 20 cm (average more around 10 cm) new snow on a rain or temperature crust, which carried mostly and made travel quite pleasant on the glaciers. The snow coverage is a reflection of our warm winter with high freezing levels. There is practically no snow left on the hut approaches but coverage is good on the glaciers. On the Bow Glacier, the snow pack is deeper than the 2 meter probe I carried and probed very dense with several hard crusts embedded. Coverage on the Peyto Glacier was less with 180 - 160 cm, the lower 500 meter of the glacier tongue is bare.
On Saturday and Sunday, winds were moderate to strong westerly. The new snow was pretty moist and bonded well anywhere we traveled. However, we did observe a relatively recent sz. 3 avalanche that was possibly cornice triggered (see attached photo) on the east face of Mt. Ayesha and which ran into mellow glacier-travel type terrain so wind-loaded easterly aspects require some respect!
We managed to climb Mt. Thompson (good snow travel with only a few rocky patches) and Mt. Habel, which was in excellent condition.
The walk-out via Peyto Lake was also in good condition. The new trail leading along the descender's left (north) side of Peyto Creek is getting more pronounced. For the crossing of Cauldron Creek we left our boots on (watch for large cairns to find the best spot to cross), for Peyto Creek we waded in Tevas and Croqs. We crossed Peyto Creek where the new trail descends almost to valley bottom and were the creek is a bit braided. I did the same walk-out last year in Mid-July in warm weather after fresh snowfall, which had resulted in substantially stronger glacial run-off. Then, the best spot for crossing the glacial outflow was close to Peyto Lake, where it tends to be the most braided and low angle. The uncertainty of the challenge level involved in the river crossings has added quite a bit of suspense to the "Little Wapta Trek" since the bridge was washed out.
Overall great travel conditions on the Wapta and good access to the huts!
Jorg Wilz
Mountain Guide ACMG / VDBS / IFMGA
