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Climbed the south face of Mt Brazeau and traversed both Mt Valad and Mt Henry Macleod over the weekend (Aug 22 to 24).
Above 2600m up to 5cm of snow fell Friday afternoon and evening making for a chilly bivy, but most of this was melted away by Saturday afternoon.
We found generally good late season conditions on the glaciers in this region. Bergschrunds and crevasses have opened up significantly this summer, but enough snow coverage and bridging allowed for reasonably direct and efficient route-finding on all three peaks. Due to snowy conditions we made one 17 metre rappel off of an in-situ rock anchor while descending the rock of the north ridge of Valad. This may be avoidable in dry conditions (or by by-passing onto the glacier over a large schrund), but it was nice to have a 40 metre rope in our case.
Bivy sites are in good shape with easy access to water.
The approach from the SW via Poboktan Creek is in good condition.
Jeremy Mackenzie
IFMGA/ACMG Mountain Guide
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