This past week Kirsten and I were able to observe some notable conditions in
the Lake Louise group and Icefields.
Our group spent a couple nights at the Neil Colgan hut in the drizzle and fog
on Aug 5-7 and listened to non stop rockfall from all the surrounding peaks.
Fay's west ridge slopes were black ice with an enlarging Schrund and the Roth
Kallen was completely black. The Central Ice Bulge still looked good. Little
had heaps of rockfall on its face as well. We did not have any over night
freezes.
The upper Victoria glacier (Aug 8) was also more bare then we had seen it
before. The typical route of travel to the col led us to an impassable
crevasse. We rerouted and went straight up from the rock buttress that you
cross at the start of the glacier. From there we traveled west under the
schrund and down to get back to the flats that are approx 500m of travel away
from the shrund crossing before the col. The obvious hazard here is rock fall
as you are under Collier for the duration. The col right now is entirely rock.
Once again, there was no overnight freeze.
Looking across the way, Aberdeen looked to be ice most of the way up.
In the Icefields, (Aug 9) we went up the Boundary Ice tongue towards A2, which
is in good shape with lots of white ice still. Glacier travel towards A2 looks
like it could be quite complicated with bare ice and snow plugs. We descended
the icefall to skiers left which was tricky route finding and required some
downclimbing on dirty ice, but still doable. This morning we did have a freeze
which made both the ascent and descent feel much safer from rockfall.
Overall, it seems like what are often straight forward glacier routes, have now
become route finding challenges and may be potentially impossible or very time
consuming. Overnight freezes also are important for keeping the rockfall hazard
down on these now very icy faces.
Sarah Hueniken
ACMG Alpine Guide
Kirsten Knechtel
ACMG Mountain Guide
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These observations and opinions are those of the person who submitted them. The
ACMG and its members take no responsibility for errors, omissions, or lapses in
continuity. Conditions differ greatly over time and space due to the variable
nature of mountain weather and terrain. Application of this information
provides no guarantee of increased safety. Do not use the Mountain Conditions
Report as the sole factor in planning trips or making decisions in the field.
Please check out http://acmg.ca/mcr for more information.
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