[MCR] Tsar area July 21-28

I just spent the past week with Art Maki discovering a wonderful little cluster of rugged small peaks 6-9 km SW of Mount Tsar, just west of the terminus of the "Odell" glacier.

Conditions on the glaciers are excellent, and rock climbing below 2800m (about mountain top height of the range we were in) was dry and in great shape.

We had a torrential 2-day storm on Tues and Wed and last night another fierce but brief storm. These storms amounted to more than 40mm of precipitation but below 2800m little in the way of snow accumulations. Our pilot today relayed a report that the nearby Austerity Glacier had as much as 30cm of heavy snow above 3000m this week.

Mild freezes at times throughout the week, but yesterday on a steep E facing snow/ice face at noon we still had less than boot top penetration and great travel.

Cornices are still present but withered and were largely inactive. Hanging snowfields were falling apart by 11am yesterday in the heat of the day.

Tom

--
Tom Wolfe
Mountain Guide ACMG/IFMGA
Canmore, AB
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