Tom Harding and I climbed the west ridge of Sir Douglas on Aug 6.
At our bivy at 2350 m at 1 am the temperature was +9.5, at the toe of
the glacier it was +8.2 at 3.30 am. We had hoped to climb the NW Face,
which is a fine looking route, but at the moment conditions on the face
looks like thin snow over rock in a few spots low down, and the warm
temperatures caused us to change our plans.
Snow conditions were mostly poor with a minimal freeze even at higher
elevations. Anywhere the snow is thin or over rocks the crusts were
breakable and would break down quickly in direct sunlight, resulting in
significant avalanche risk. From the summit we heard water running on
the NW Face, at 9 in the morning. These conditions were significantly
different than we found on King George a few days before (and only 10
km away) and shows how the snowpack is still very dependent on weather
conditions right now. Many areas are only being held together by
surface crusts that are liable to break down with warm daytime or
night-time temperatures. Glad we didn't go to Mt Bryce like we
originally wanted!
We don't recommend the west ridge as an ascent route, it has a dirty
ice tongue at the start with rock fall issues, and the rock ridge above
is very loose. Even in descent the route is ugly. Note that if it is
warm and you want to avoid the glacier tongue late in the day you can
continue along the narrow w ridge over several small towers of crumbly
rock to a small summit where the ridge becomes easier. Keep descending
the ridge, bypass a rock step on it over scree to the north and then
traverse back towards the ridge to avoid cliff bands below and keep
descending the ridge to a col. From here 10 minutes down soft black
scree to the north brings you to the valley below and your approach
route from the morning.
Mark
Mark Klassen
Mountain Guide
mark@xxxxxxxxxxxx
www.alpinism.com
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