Icefields Parkway Ski Conditions 2010/11

fresh snow again today in Golden. it's gotta be game on up there.

summited columbia last week, prime skiing. just some bare ice to crampon up the athabasca glacier

Hey Henry, any chance you could post some pics? I'd love to see the recent status of the face.

congrats on the summit. Did you guys ski it?

Tim

Went hunting for skiable snow on the Parkway on Halloween weekend. It's low tide up there to say the least. Athabasca's normal route is skiable but there's basically nothing else skiable up there. For now.

Here's a shot of Parker's Ridge

Went and bagged Mt. Gordon yesterday in one loooong 28km day.

- 25cm's soft fluff in the parking lot yesterday morning.

- open alpine was wind hammered down to sastrugi and lots of slab formation in the catches.

- NE face of Mt. Olive had a slab pull out, also the NE side of the ridge on St Nic had a slab pull out.

If any one is heading up to Mt. Gordon in the near future, I will give you beer if you bring my ice axe down from the summit.....I forgot it up there and by the time I realized it was missing there was no way I was going all that way back up to get it. It's a BD Raven...really light and worth carrying for beer

Interested to see any pics from this weekend. Anything changed? Will be in Canmore/LL on Thurs-Sun next week and am looking for the best place to make some turns. May turn out that Sunshine is the best bet?

sorry double post....

sorry tim didn't see your reply till just now.

back in september the face was in prime skiable shape.

my friend was the one with the camera

Hey I am wondering if anyone has been up to Bow Hut recently and if theis last system made it worth a trip there thursday-saturday?

We day tripped Mt. Gordon last Wednesday and there was 25cm in the parking lot. However the alpine and all open areas were wind hammered down to sastrugi. The slope above the hut on the glacier made for good skiing...pick your line carefully as there are a few just barely covered slots around mid slope where the low angle terrain trasitions to steeper terrain. Below Bow hut wasn't really skiable per say unless you count kick turning and gliding down barely covered rock skiing. The canyon had many water crossings, we stayed on the summer route on the way up, and took the canyon down. Either one isn't really better than the other, but at least in the canyon you won't have to deal with barely covered ski gouging rocks.

If you end up on the summit of Mt. Gordon, please retrieve the shiny new BD ice axe that was left on top. Many beers will compensate its return. Can't believe I forgot the damned thing.