Athabasca Glacier Goes

Quick report

Weather

cloudy, sunny

Ride Type

sunnySlopes, alpineSlopes, mellowSlopes, convexSlopes

Riding Quality

good

Snow Conditions

powder, crusty, hard

We travelled to the Mount Athabasca north glacier via the boundary peak route. Travel was between 1970-2950m. From 1970-2400m the snowpack was thin but supported by a MFcr which made for difficult travel. Between 2400-2950 there was a ski pen of 10-15cm of fist HN overlaying progressively denser snow. The north glacier had variable coverage ranging on average from 130-200cm. The HS at 2950m was 290cm. We observed several dry loose avalanches off northerly aspects in the alpine induced by solar around midday. A notable serac induced size 3 slab avalanche had released during the last warm up and ran well onto the glacier. Moderate winds from the SE were observed throughout the morning with gusting to strong on ridge-top. Convective flurries produced 2cm of HN before clearing around 12:00. Ski quality was excellent from 2950-2300m with the 10-15cm of fist snow. Below 2300m a skier supportive crust with deteriorating variable coverage until 1970m exists.