5 days once again playing in Tonquin. I also wanted to say as others
in recent reports how much bare ice is visible on many of the
glaciers in this area.
Climbed McDonnell Peak on Aug 8th and have never seen the Fraser
glacier so icy. Still good snow under the unnamed peak to south but
the basin is mostly ice. The col between Benington and McDonnell is
melting out and recent parties used the rock to the right to either
traverse down to the snow or work the rock back and forth then
gaining the snow near the shrund at the bottom. Experienced strong
parties were taking 12-14 hours on the east ridge of Benington.
Climbed Clithroe Peak on the 9th. A nice but loose
scramble/short-rope summit. We went up the left side then traversed
to main summit in the middle of the peak. We descended directly below
the summit block into a gully which was descended on the sides on
good ledges till about 1/2 way down where the gully turns left...Here
we traversed right to the next gully and grassy slopes that led
easily and cleanly to the bottom. (see photo...red is up, green is down)
One party tried to climb Erebus via the 5.4 route from the
Eremite-Erebus col but because of recession of snow and ice could not
get on the rock. The gully on Anchorite is almost disappeared with
only a thin strip of dirty ice left....Alcove Peak's snow face has a
huge shrund from one side to the other and the Outpost glacier seems
to be melting back quite a bit.
Looked at the standard traverse to Simon Peak from the upper slopes
of McDonnell but it looks quite ugly to get from the rock to the snow
slope that traverses across to the col on Simon Peak. This used to be
fairly straightforward but now should probably be done earlier in the
year. the summit slopes of Simon peak are now ice
Heading out today some dusting on Cavell to about 9500ft....should
dry off in a few nice days.
Peter Amann
Peter Amann
ACMG Mountain Guide
pamann@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Fraser glacier from Mcdonnell.jpg
Description: JPEG image
Benington Macdonnell col.jpg
Description: JPEG image
outpost memorial peaks and glacier.jpg
Description: JPEG image
oubliette,parapet,benington.jpg
Description: JPEG image
Clithroe.jpg
Description: JPEG image
Simon peak.jpg
Description: JPEG image
_______________________________________________
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