Hey there,
Back yesterday from a few days guiding - up the West Ridge of Mount Fay via the Perren Route.
The Perren approach was in good shape, dry and gave easy travel. No residual snow from the last storm to worry about below 2700m. All the rock pitches were dry and easy going. Once on the glacier we found great travel with no more than boot top trail breaking all the way up to the peak. Snow bridges overlaying crevasses which had been well hidden on the way up were heavy and starting to sag on the way down making them easy to spot and avoid.
We didn't have to deal with any of the windslab issues reported as of last week - with the exception of the occasional pocket on shaded north aspects, what slab issues there were, were quickly settling and bonding well.
Climbing the ice face to access the West Ridge was straightforward. We were able to walk across a well bridged section of the bergschrund right in the middle of the face - easy going. The face above is down to ice the whole way and easy to protect if you've got screws with you. Once on the ridge the sun had dried out most of the route with the occasional patch of snow left over here and there, but on the whole the route was dry.
No rockfall observed, but the north aspects of Fay were reasonably cold for us right into the later hours of the afternoon. Having said that, most of the north aspects on the mountain were still coated in snow. I'd expect when that melts off the rockfall will likely pick up a bit. Lot's of loose/wet snow sloughing off more solar aspects in the afternoon.
Having said all this, I'm just getting back today from a day of work in Lake Louise and the (cloud) ceiling was down to 1900m or so and hosing rain for most of the afternoon. If there's snow up high again, which seems likely, the above info might be a bit stale already. Hopefully it's still useful for a couple days.
Hope you all had a great weekend!
Mike Trehearne
Alpine Guide & Apprentice Ski Guide
Cloud Nine Guides
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