I guided and attempt on French Reality on April 15th. We took snow shoes to the
flats below the shoulder access to the traverse ledge, but the crust underlying
the 10 to 20 centimetres of new snow was supportive and we could have probably
got by without them (We walked down to the car at the end of the day without
the snowshoes and had no post holing). There is a gully around to the north of
the described approach in Waterfall Ice that works well now that the forest has
changed with the 2003 burns. The gully is about 100 metres around to the north.
We cramponed up there on the hard supportive crust. There was the occasional
wind slab while crossing the approach ledge but the snow is bonding well and
the hazard was low. The route was in good shape up to the last (crux) pitch of
ice that started with a very serious pillar that was cracked across its bread
loaf sized footing. We gave it a miss and it looked to my naked eye today from
the 93 highway to have fallen off (binoculars
will tell).
April 16th we attempted The Silver Lining under beautiful blue skies and calm
to no wind. A strong supportive crust allowed us to walk on top pretty much
everywhere once we stepped out of snow shoes and skis and the crust hung in
there all day. We found a lot of detached ice that felt too serious and opted
for the rock variations described in Waterfall Ice, and used on the first
ascent (note that there is no option to the dry tooling and thin and detached
ice of the first pitch, but there was patches of attached ice there that took
10 and 13 cm screws). Time slipped through our fingers between attempting the
thin ice of the second pitch then opting for the rock, we bailed from the cave
at the end of the second pitch.
April 17th I guide on the Tokumm Pole. There is only 15 metres of floor left on
the creek and the bottom right side of the climb has been undercut by water and
fallen away leaving a 2 metre roof.
We climbed on the left which is hanging in there well, but does have water
running behind it at its top. More supportive day long crusts.
Happy Trails,
Barry Blanchard
Mountain Guide
Yamnuska Mountain Adventures
Sent from my iThingy
_______________________________________________
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