May 17, 2015, Athabasca, Silver Horn

A weak system gave a dusting of snow and cooler temperatures to the interior rockies yesterday making for good ski conditions today. We found good coverage on the Athabasca Glacier with the previous weeks tracks visible here and there on the lower glacier. With such good spring weather I overlooked the visible moderate winds at ridge top that was causing ongoing loading of lee slopes. Group discussions focused on route finding and the possibility of sun on the lower slopes destabilizing the bottom steep pitch of the route but winds were not discussed. When traversing above large seracs to gain the ridge I triggered a 20cm by 20m windslab. Luckily it broke below my ski tips. We promptly retreated and enjoyed a nice powder/corn run back down to the road.

Conditions: It is possible to skin from the brusters access road. Dry snow began at 2900-3000m. Coverage looks fairly good on the ice faces of the silverhorn and the sky ladder.