[MCR] Stanley Peak

Climbed Stanley Peak yesterday July 17th.

 

Poor freezing overnight and the melt freeze crust was braking down with sun exposure around 8AM. Was on the summit @ 9AM. Unless we get colder temperature, I highly recommend starting very early and being back down by lunchtime.

 

Approach: Both tongues of the glacier (East and West) are on bare ice and in similar condition. Upper flat part of the glacier below the North face of the mountain is covered with snow with good travel early in AM but deteriorating during the day.

 

Route: North Face, Kahl Route: First half of the route is mostly on bare ice (good glacier climbing). Other half is on snow (good steps except for the last 40m where the snow coverage is thin).

 

Descent: The best and safest way down is the long way on the NW ridge. The short cut in the snow gully is in bad condition this year. The snow is actually not going all the way down. An other party attempted to descend that way yesterday and one climber fail down and was injured seriously with head injury and possibly some broken bones. Coming back down the Kahl route is an other option if you are familiar with technical alpine descent (steep and high exposure!).

 

Other routes on the mountain: I had a look at the other routes on the north face and they are all in very bad condition with lots of rock falls and lack of good ice. You do not want even get close to those things!

 

Be safe climbing, I had enough rescue training for this year!

Remy Bernier

ACMG Rock Guide

remybernier@xxxxxxxxx

www.myrockguide.com

Tel: 403-678-4276

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Lèche-vitrine ou lèche-écran ? Yahoo! Magasinage.