Up the NW Arete yesterday with Jesse Demontigny on a training mission.
The route was in excellent shape, dry with no snow or ice on the N
face throughout the lower (crux) third. Several small snow patches
still linger in shady pockets in the upper third, but these were easy
to avoid or kick up.
As the clouds rolled in near the top, we caught up to Marco Delesalle
and guest and opted to descend together. The west face ledges still
looked to have a fair bit of snow covering the steep slabs, so we
stayed on the arete. The start of the bolted rappel stations that
avoid the downclimb of the lower half of the route is currently
flagged with webbing and so is easy to spot. The low angle terraces
below the rappel line still have a bit of snow and running water as
does the top of the approach slope, so we kept the rope out right to
the ground.
Despite intense-looking skies, the weather (mostly) held for us, but
the monsoon and fireworks that hit as we descended may have left a
fresh dusting of snow up high and on the N face, at least until the
sun returns.
New (to me, anyway) on the approach is a Lower Trail which stays
below the steep moraines at the base. If you haven't yet heard about
it, it is a well built trail that splits off from the old trail 50m
or so below the top of the waterfall. The melt flow is high right
now, so the stream crossing was not dry or obvious, but the trail is
well cairned on the north (far) side and stays just above treeline
until almost underneath the Sir D-Uto col. This avoids the ascent up
the lateral moraine and almost all of the steep snow side hilling,
rock fall hazard and general scree bashing of the old approach. The
new campsite (toilet) that's been put in beside the tarn 1/2 way
along this new trail is also a much better and more durable bivy than
the old meadow bivy sites.
Carl Johnston
ACMG Rock Guide and sometime shortroping crash test dummy
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