| Great conditions on Guinness today, an overcast and windless -3C at 0800 with just a couple of cms of new snow, and +3C and scattered skies by 1200.
At the base, there was substantial debris with only a skiff of new snow on top, which had me thinking it was a fairly fresh slide (last week?) and this has fully filled in the usual step of approach ice with hard snow. All of the pitches of Guinness are still very fat and minimally sun-effected for this time of year, which made for easy protection and climbing. Stout is in similar shape.
Despite thinking the climb had perhaps flushed itself out, there was still plenty of slab on facets (HS 80-100cm) throughout the middle and upper sections of the gully. Most of the climb is still in morning shade; however, the sun is now baking the upper gully (incl. Stout) by late morning (~11am), so we were glad to be walking off, and out from under all that snow when the cloud cover began to break.
With the sun coming out and a party below, rather than rappelling we opted to otter slide down. This was pleasant to start but a bit fierce in the bottom half where the traffic and sun have really iced things up. A very controlled speed and our axes were just enough to see us down intact, but in hindsight (and snow stability notwithstanding) the rappel descent is definitely preferable right now. Rap slings are in decent shape all the way up, though no intermediate (30m) "V" threads that I could see.
Enjoy!
Carl Johnston, RG/AAG |