The Association of Canadian Mountain Guides Apprentice Ski Guide Exam took place in the Rockies around Lake Louise and Bow Lake between April 2nd and 7th. The following is a summary of the conditions for those areas during this period.

Trips

Trips included: Popes Col, Mt. Niblock, Mt. Field, Mt. Hector, Mt. Olive, Cirque Peak, Observation Peak, The Pumpkin Traverse and Little Crowfoot. Our travels took us to elevations ranging from 1600m - 3380m.

Weather

Early in the week we experienced consistently very cold temperatures ranging from -19 to -5. This was accompanied by mostly moderate gusting to strong winds and convective flurries. Daily snowfall amounts were an average of 2-3cm of low density snow; the single biggest accumulation was on Saturday evening with up to 10cm of new snow at higher elevations. Daytime temperatures increased on Saturday and Sunday with freezing levels rising to 2300m and strong solar input.

Avalanche activity

We consistently observed evidence of naturally occurring cornice falls which were releasing subsequent slab avalanches on solar aspects up to 50 cm deep. Similar cornice falls were not initiating slab avalanches on shaded aspects but the cornice falls were still large enough to bury a person.
Towards the weekend, as temperatures climbed and solar radiation increased, we observed a natural avalanche cycle on steep solar alpine/tree-line slopes. Most of these were loose in nature with the occasional slab release on an east aspect.

Snowpack and terrain use

Generally we found a strong mid-snowpack. Windslab/storm slab development observed throughout the week was largely un-reactive until Sunday when a large stellar snowflake layer was buried by up to 10 cm of new snow. We found the bond between the new snow and past wind slab to be poor and we experienced two skier-initiated avalanches in steeper, lee terrain features of the alpine. These were generally of little hazard at the time but with additional snow accumulation and wind loading in specific terrain features they could have been problematic. The deep persistent facet problem at the bottom of the snow pack was not reactive to skier traffic as we generally kept to slope angles below 30 degrees where we felt the snowpack to be weak. Steep solar aspects were largely avoided due to persistent weakness in the form of the March 15 melt/freeze crust present down 25-50 cm in the snowpack. We were consistently mindful of our exposure to the large cornices present above our potential ski terrain.

Ski quality

Ski quality on all but due south aspects was good to excellent throughout the week and dependant on wind effect, with sheltered slopes providing excellent ski quality. We suspect this has since changed with the arrival of strong solar radiation this weekend and we expect high elevation shaded slopes to now yield the best ski quality.

Darek Glowacki ACMG Mountain Guide on behalf of the Apprentice Ski Guide candidates.