Spearhead Traverse: December 17, 2005.
Felt like -6, wind SE light to moderate at ridgetop. Limited orographic
effect ridgetop, otherwise clear sky?s.
Upper snowpack: sastrugi, meltfreeze crust, pervasive/insidious thin
pencil to knife hard windslab over facets... Well settled mid and lower
pack?
Coverage and travel on the upper levels of most glaciers is still thin,
but less problematic than this time last season. Crevasse bridging
?deceptively? strong with thin strong surface over facets. Travel was
generally fast though ski crampons would be effective on most stepper
climbs.
Elected to climb lower angled NW side of Decker Gl and through the
Decker-Trorey col, rather than climb steeper crevassed and icy NE side of
the glacier. Paterson bypass (2350m) looks bulletproof and still has a
significant schrund sag mid slope. A few threatening cornice tongues off
the North side of Benvolio. The upper notch from the ?windy-corner? after
the gendarme to get onto the Overlord Gl is still a 5m step of low-5th
class rock. There is a short easy rap from a pre-slung block at the top of
this step if you so choose. Lots of sags but passable (in good light) if
you option to descend the Gl down around the N side of Fissile.
Decent skiing off Whirlwind, Cowboy to Singing pass otherwise heinous most
everywhere else on the traverse. Suspect N aspect on the Whistler side
has descent skiing on faceted surface. Of course, all this will change
over the next couple hrs as I sit here looking out my back window watching
the cloud line dropping over Mtn Sproatand.
Appears to have been a couple of parties around the traverse last week
Keith Reid, IFMGA
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