Futile Mountaineering

Yesterday, Sept 25th, my guest and I tried to get to the east ridge of Haddo Peak. As soon as we left the compacted Mt Fairview trail we were punching to ground through a breakable crust over boot top snow. The depth of the snow increased to knee deep at 2400 metres, still with the breakable crust ... futile. Seems that mountaineering in the Lake Louise Group is a write off right now, ugh.

We retreated from 2400 metres and back tracked to the compacted hiking trail and walked to the top of Fairview Mountain. Traction devices are a good idea right now and, possibly, snow shoes if you are trying to get high in untracked snow.

There was a recent wind slab out of the summit northnortheast icefield of Mt Aberdeen.

Good luck and happy trails,

Barry Blanchard
Mountain Guide
Yamnuska Mountain Adventures
www.yamnuska.com