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Mt Lefroy/Victoria - Aug 13-14, 2011
A fair amount of information for this area recently, but in case anyone is heading in there soon, here is an update.....
Temperatures this morning at Abbot Pass were uncomfortably warm -- it was +6.5 degrees at 4:30am at 2925m. This quickly cancelled our plans for Victoria and we turned our attention to Lefroy. A couple of guided parties climbed Lefroy on Aug 13 and reported relatively good conditions with a marginal freeze up high. Unfortunately today we had very soft conditions with no freeze at all until above 3300m. A thin surface crust was helping to hold things together a little bit, but lots of probing revealed a section of very slushy snow underneath the thin crust in a steeper section just below the ridgecrest. We turned around here, not confident that we had enough time to summit and then descend these slopes safely. That was at 7:00am. Significant amounts of weak and unconsolidated snow remain on the face, and a good freeze is critical. Some small avalanches were observed on the west slopes of Lefroy (affecting the climbing routes) on the afternoon of Aug 13.
As has been mentioned numerous times already, Mt. Victoria still looks very snowy for this time of year. A party retreated yesterday from near the Sickle in "deteriorating snow conditions" and no freeze. It appears there has not been a significant freeze on the peak for at least the last 2 days. Cornices are also quite evident along the ridge.
It's a different summer out there this year. Play safe!
Jeremy Mackenzie
ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide
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