I spent the past week guiding Art Maki and his daughter out of a camp
at 2200m on the Swiftcurrent Glacier.
The glaciers have good coverage and are in good condition right now
allowing access to most peaks in the area. Firn line extends down to
approximately 2500m but things are drying out quickly. The snowpack
was support allowing excellent travel, with good overnight freezes and
decent travel even late in the day on most aspects.
Whitehorn W ridge is in good shape and the NW glacier accessing it
allows relatively uncomplicated passage right now. July 31 the ridge
was verglassed and dusted with snow, which slowed things down a bit,
but by early afternoon it had dried out again for the descent. Rap
anchors are generally in good condition.
We had a good look at the "Ramps" on Whitehorn's south side that are
the traditional way of accessing the W Ridge / Swiftcurrent, and they
look ugly, with multiple gaping schrunds/crevasses/seracs. Not
recommended.
The "Longstaff" peaks and the "Carcajou" peaks (the latter being
climbed, cairned, and named covertly by members of the Grizzly Group
in 1992 according to the summit registers...) are all good to go.
Access to Mt Phillips looks challenging right now with broken glaciers
and seracs threatening approaches to the climbing routes.
Getting on and off the toe of Swiftcurrent Glacier from the south
right now is complicated by the fact that you need to cross the river
-- it lives up to the name "Swiftcurrent", and it's pretty exciting.
--
Regards,
Tom Wolfe
Mountain Guide ACMG/IFMGA
www.sawback.com
Canmore, Alberta
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