Hey All,
Returned from another trip up to the Neil Colgan Hut this past weekend to guide the Chouinard Route on Mount Fay, as well as another ascent of Mount Little.
We approached via the Perren again which was mostly dry and gave easy travel. The moat below the first couple of rock pitches climbed has melted back a lot and doesn't take any tricky manoeuvring to get past and onto the rock above. Just walk up and start climbing. There is still the usual long snow patch in the scree bowl above that, just below the chain pitch, that has water pumping down the entire route. Easy to travel with the water-bottles dry and fill up only where you need to. Was also nice to glissade down on the return trip instead of pounding down the scree.
The 5.6 rock pitche(s) that gain the glacier are in normal shape.
Worth noting that while we we're climbing the traverse pitch, the serac that is immediately to the climbers right on the Fay Glacier calved off. A Sz. 2 avalanche filled the gully below with debris and ran all the way down to the scree slope at the start of the route (where most of us guidos put the rope & helmets on), running about 100m out into the middle of it. Looking at the ice, seems like there's potential for more sports action, head up.
In the week or so between trips the coverage on the glacier has quickly been shrinking and although we found most of the bigger crevasses to be well bridged, there's been a huge amount of ice starting to appear on the glacier. The snow faces that access the west ridge are still holding on but near the top, ice patches are starting to appear and the snow is thinning quickly on the upper half of the face.
The second day I guided an ascent of the Chouinard Route. To my eye anyway, the serac features have become less and less threatening over the past few years with the continued recession, and the consistent lack of serac debris at the base was enough to make me consider it as an option. There's no getting around the exposure to the cornice over head, so moving fast of the lower half of the route and not messing around in the bergschrund all seemed like good ideas. Was really happy my guest, Christian, could move fast.
Crossing the schrund' we were able to use a small cone of old loose wet debris the extended from the bottom of the hole up to the overhanging lip of snow on the other side gaining access to the face, if and when this disappears the only option would be to climb a 6 - 8 meter overhanging wall of snow and ice to gain the face. Given the exposure time, I think we'd likely just have turned around had that been the case.
On the face above, a couple 60m snow pitches lead to the exposed toe of the serac and allow for quick travel. We chose a line up the right most side of the feature to put ourselves out of the way of the cornice above as soon as possible. 5 or 6 pitches of fun alpine ice climbing up to 90˚, and some easy mixed climbing (if you want it) brings you to the top of the ice and on the very right hand margin of the cornice above, but not underneath it. Mind the two crevasses (I nearly popped into one) just below the summit plateau. These can be avoided by hugging the rock on the climbers right and then climbing the snow spine to the top. Couple easy but steeper moves the last few meters to top out. Bringing a picket was definitely helpful in a few spots on the route. and nice to belay off of on the summit ridge. 1 was enough.
We descended the West Ridge, dry the whole way. Most of the rap stations have brand new tat as of the last week.
Mount Little went quickly on the last day, good step kicking snow to the ridge crest and dry from there up meant we were about 25min's from the hut to summit. Route's in good shape.
If your heading up to the hut in the next week, bring your own coffee cup. Until the ACC Maintenance crew gets up there (last week of July) the place is in short supply, especially with a full house.
Have a great week!
Mike Trehearne
AG/ASG
Cloud Nine Guides Inc.
Blog & Photos of this trip at:
www.cloudnineguides.com/blog
www.facebook.com/cloudnineguides