[MCR] Stanley Headwall - French Reality

Subject: [MCR] Stanley Headwall - French Reality
Date: Sat, 19 Nov 2005 20:24:19 -0700
French Reality is in decent shape right now, thin on the first two pitches
(mainly rock climbing), last two pitches are in good shape. Not quite the
give-away that it was last year but still soft for the grade. 

Two 70 m raps puts you at the base nice and quick. Bring a half dozen cams
to 2.5/3", a few tricams, and a few nuts. Looking at Rob Owens' recent
photos I thought that the ice was in the chimney (and so brought an overly
skimpy rack) but it's not -- it's on the wall to the right and is thin. 

Snowpack in the Stanley Valley consists of about 30 cm of dry,
unconsolidated faceting snow with a thin temp/rain?/wind crust on the top
(up to 10 mm thick) in patches. Snow levels are below threshold for
avalanches at least as far as Nemesis. 

Regards,
Tom Wolfe