May 13-17, 2013, Classic Wapta Trav POW

In sharp contrast to the previous wapta traverse post our traverse had winter conditions and 8 inches of decent pow above 9000 feet on NE wind loaded aspects with less below. The draw back to our late traverse was that the peyto lake entry was helllll! The only viable entrance currently, unless you wish to suffer terribly, is the Bow Hut entrance. The glaciers are in great shape although be aware that the new snow is hiding some of the crevasses a bit on the larger faces. Our exit out to sherbrook lake went quickly with a super hard freeze overnight providing quick travel conditions over dust on crust. The lake was still frozen but we choose to take the trail that follows the shore line. Continuous snow to 1.6km ish past the lake with carries after that. The snow should last for a while yet along the lake but will quickly melt out below. A quick look at the weather forecast appears to suggest that travel conditions on the icefield will remain good for a while to come.

Didn't accomplish much in the way of peak bagging due to extreme suffering the first day and some visibility issues with persistent clouds on the summits. We did manage to get nice powder descents off of Gordon, the shoulder of St. Nick, and the shoulder of Balfour with a lot of glacier skipping throughout the trip.

O and we had the whole place to ourselves the entire trip!!!

Missing the best pictures but here are some to give you an idea of the conditions we experienced.