Mt Rhondda (Wapta area)

Quick report

Weather

sunny

Ride Type

alpineSlopes, mellowSlopes, steepSlopes, sunnySlopes

Riding Quality

good

Snow Conditions

hard, powder, windAffected

Mt Rhondda (Wapta Conditions Photos), March 23-25, 2024. Day 1 skied into Bow Hut with a noon start, canyon had great coverage with minimal overhead remaining, easy travel. Weather better than expected with clearing skies, ended up bluebird. ~15cm of fresh powder atop the solar crust, didn't ski but ski quality would have been excellent. Saw some natural avalanches but pretty isolated, things seemed quite locked up. Temps felt warm but remained below 0. Day 2, headed up to Mt Rhondda from Bow Hut. Easy travel with parties out breaking trail, probed 240cm and 210cm above the Onion at 2600m. Coverage generally good although there was a ton of noticeable sags than I have never seen in the last 6 years of touring up here. A bit less snowpack than there should be for late May. The last couple summers did a number on these glaciers. Coverage to Rhondda remained great throughout. Straightforward skinning right to the top. A fantastic ski down, the snow that fell in the most recent storm had yet to be wind hammered and it was just brilliant skiing just about everywhere. Every party reported great skiing on every aspect. -13c clear with light winds at the summit at 1:30pm. An all time day, I skied full speed and didn't explode, very happy with that. Have good photos of Bow-Yoho traverse crux, have a look. Day 3, ski out. Lower elevations and solar aspects had crusts, made for some difficult and unpleasant skiing at times, fast travel back to the car, didn't notice any new avalanches, quite a few tracks in the area, coverage is poor for late March. The canyon to Bow Hut has very good coverage however, should hold up for a while unless a heat wave comes, skis on the whole time for now

Weather

Max Temp

-3

Min Temp

-13

Wind Speed

windSpeedCalm

Blowing Snow

none

Sky Condition

fewClouds

Temperature Trend

steady

Precipitation Type

none