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Hey all,
We've spent the last couple weeks guiding in both the Bugaboos and Lake Louise area. Here's a few quick obs from our trips. (The following is now about a week old) The heat wave, and mostly stable weather from last week made for great climbing in the Bugs, but combined with a night of heavy rain had noticeably reduced the amount of snow coverage up there. In general travel was quite good, with only the warmest afternoons making for punchy travel conditions on the glaciers. The Bugaboo-Snowpatch Col, when we arrived, was in about as good as it gets type shape. Even after this past weeks heat it was still continuous snow bottom to top, but thinning quickly just below the col. The upper bergschrund is starting to open more and more by the day, though still no problem to sneak around at this point. We climbed a number of routes in the 7 days we guided there. All dry and in good shape. For those who might be planning to climb it, we replaced or bulked up many of the existing rap stations as we came down the Buckingham Route, hopefully those will last a while yet. In Lake Louise this weekend we guided 3 days from the Neil Colgan Hut in mostly lousy weather. We woke early (4am) on the 20th to a blizzard and sideways freezing drizzle type weather outside and just decided to go back to bed. The storm had cleared by 8am or so and we thought we'd still take a run at Mount Fay despite the late start. The bergschrund below the access to the west ridge seemed weaker than usual for this time of year, but still relatively easy to get across. We crossed it below the ice face farthest to the climbers right. The 2 pitches below the ridge were good step kicking (in snow), while the pitch immediately after the schrund' was down to bare ice. By the time we hit the ridge the sun had burnt off the early morning coating of ice and verglass and we had dry conditions to the top of the rock. Supportive travel from the top of the West Ridge to the summit and back. Yesterday at 8am, there was a fresh 5cms on the deck of the Neil Colgan Hut as we left to descend back to valley bottom. Can't imagine it will last long in this heat though. We gave Mount Little a miss as a result. Athabasca, Castle Mountain, Abbott Pass and another week in the Bugaboos in the next week and a bit for us, we'll have some more beta for you all when we're back :) Have fun out there! Guides: Mike Trehearne Kyle Chartrand Cloud Nine Guides _______________________________________________ These observations and opinions are those of the person who submitted them. The ACMG and its members take no responsibility for errors, omissions, or lapses in continuity. Conditions differ greatly over time and space due to the variable nature of mountain weather and terrain. Application of this information provides no guarantee of increased safety. Do not use the Mountain Conditions Report as the sole factor in planning trips or making decisions in the field. See http://acmg.ca/mcr for more information. See http://informalex.org/subscribe.shtml#unsubscribe to remove your name from this list. |
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