Hey there,
Quick update on conditions up on Mount Athabasca.
I guided two up the North Face Bypass yesterday. Overall the route was in good shape and gave us easy passage, minus a few snow squalls throughout the day. Crevasses the whole way up to the base of the North Face were easy to both see and get around.
On the approach to the base of the north face we ran into lots of small windslabs of varying hardness above 2800m. For the most part they just made track setting a little more work, no other issues.
Crossing the bergschrund was a little exciting as the bridge settled about 10cm's with me standing in the middle of it. There's a few choices of bridges to cross mostly created by recent storm snows sloughing off the North Face, worth remembering that these are likely to be quite weak right now before you hop onto them.
The face above that gains the North Ridge was snow almost top to bottom, except for the last 20m or so. If you're planning on using the rope on the face, pickets would be the ticket for protection for the first 110m above the bergschrund, offering solid vertical placements. T-Slots would be way too much work in the uber-hard snow, at least for me anyways! From 110m and up, the face will take ice screws right up to the first rock pitch on the summit ridge. The exposed rock on the pitches leading to the summit were dry and in good shape, interspersed with snow choked gullies that gave fun and easy to protect climbing.
We decided to descend the AA Col. From the col we descended on scree to just above the bergschrund, which was easy to cross on the very far skiers right side. Below that a few crevasses to jump but all easy enough to see coming.
Pretty fun day out all in all.
Hope you all had a great weekend!
Mike Trehearne
Alpine Guide & Apprentice Ski Guide
Cloud Nine Guides
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