Just came out of the Bugaboos. As you would expect
rock conditions are excellent, even with the few cm's
of snow from late last week. The glaciers however,
continue to deteriorate at a very fast pace. The
Bugaboo/ Snowpatch col is down to bare ice till the
bergshrund and has a few holes open lower down as
well. The bottom two rappels (climbers left side) are
becoming hard to reach as the ice continues to melt
back. The last anchor is a good 3 meters above the
ice, and requires some climbing to get up to it. This
last rap (30m) will get you just onto the small
bridge. Once this is gone (soon) you will need to make
one additional, none fixed rappel to get over. The
loose, scree/boulder right hand side seems to almost
be a better option now if no one is above you.
The glacier on the south side of the Howser/ Pigeon
col is also starting to be problematic. A few hundred
meters down there are four large crevasses that now
almost span the full width of the regular way through.
A rope is a must, as are crampons in almost all but
the softest conditions. This will be important to
remember when there is any significant amount of new
snow to dust them over.
The rappels off the South and North Howsers are in
good conditions as are the bergshunds.
Have fun. Craig McGee, IFMGA
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