Sarah Hueniken & I just spent July 28-Aug 1st
in the Fairy Meadows area with a group of guests.
The weather over the
5 days was quite convective with storms and lightening at any time of the day. In general we had good overnight freezes
which made for fast and easy travel on the snow.
On July 31 & Aug 1st the surface snow did not refreeze
and we saw several size 1 point releases as well as increased icefall
avalanches and rockfall. The north face of Yggdrasil (gothics glacier area) had an older size 3 slab release to glacier ice- perhaps from early July.
Rock ridge routes in
the area were free of any new snow with lingering winter snow at higher elevations. The glacier
coverage is still very good with well bridged crevasses. The north face glacier routes on Adamant look
like they have become more challenging with glacier recession which has increased the
icefall hazard in the area. Mt Austerity
via the Ironman Austerity col looked to have reasonable crossings over the
bergshrund. We were unable to climb
through the two bergshrunds on Pioneer pass but this might be possible with a
better freeze and a short section of overhanging ice climbing.
We helicoptered in
and out of the hut as the drive to Swan Creek and the hiking trail in both
sounded difficult or perhaps impassible.