Hey all,
Back from a busy week in the field. Up Mounts Fay and Little, spending a few days at the Neil Colgan Hut. Over to Stanley Peak, a cragging day at Heart Creek and an ascent of the NE on Ha Ling yesterday.
The approach to the Neil Colgan Hut has lost a lot of snow both up to and overtop of the glacier. There's still enough running water to fill up en route but it's a lot drier than a few weeks back. The glacier is showing a fair bit of ice, but travel through the crevasses up to the hut was still straightforward, albeit a bit of wandering around.
Nice to see the new paintjob on the hut and the makings of the new outhouse up there... thanks ACC :)
West ridge of Fay is still in good shape. Bergschrund was bridged well on the climbers left side and easy to get across. There's snow above for the first 100m or so, but wouldn't bother bringing snow protection. The ice beneath was within digging range. We climbed 3 pitches above the snow into the notch on the ridge proper. Good, dry travel from there to the summit and back.
Up Little the next day which also had a pitch of ice exposed to access the ridge crest. Dry up and down from the summit, but things had warmed up enough that we were able to find the bergscrund on the way down, poking a leg through the bridge. Good to remember if you're choosing to short-rop or solo up from the hut.
Over to Mount Stanley pretty quickly there after. We bivi'd below the peak, but woke up to +14˚C at 230am. Less than confident, we thought we'd walk up and check out the access to the Stanley Glacier. When we arrived, all was quiet and we decided to climb up onto the bench below the upper face for a look around. Lot's and lot's of large rock up to the size of your typical piece of carry on luggage perched on the ice tongue. After a bit of a look the sun pulled around hitting the upper face and you could hear the volleys of rockfall starting to rocket down the face. We turned around and headed back to the bivi.
If you wanted a real chance at climbing this thing without the rockfall hazard, it will need to get a lot colder and hold the freeze long enough to get back down off the ice features. Fall isn't too far around the corner, that'd be my bet.
Spent a day in Heart Creek at the First Rock crag. My first time in there since the flooding earlier this summer and very nearly walked right past the crag. Strange to be somewhere you've been so often and be on-sighting the approach. Anyhow, with the flooding (at least I hope) there seems to be a fair bit of broken glass being hidden in the silt and dirt washed in by the floodwaters at the base of the First Rock Crag. In flip flops I was nervous, and bare feet would be bad news.
Up the North East on Ha Ling yesterday. I found the amount of rubble far in excess of what seems normal for that route, mostly deposited on down-sloping features or ledges. Given the benefit of hindsight, if we arrived and weren't first on the route, I'd be choosing an alternative objective.
Have a great week out there!
Mike Trehearne
AG/ASG
Cloud Nine Guides Inc.
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