| Fellow guide Barry Blanchard and I guided on Louise Falls today, Jan 26, and in Evan Thomas Creek yesterday.
Despite a warm weekend and temps today hovering at or just below freezing, Louise was still in very good condition. The area saw no sun, just intermittent drizzle/sleet and fog. We found planar, plastic ice everywhere except on the crux curtain. That pitch is currently slightly more difficult than usual, with lots of swiss-cheese hooking but more limited options for solid sticks and screws. To the right of the curtain a pillar has formed that looked like it should yield nice WI5 climbing but running water and rotten surface ice today dissuaded us from investigating further. Right of that pillar, there are still several medium-sized daggers hanging in. Meltwater has dissolved much of the snow on all the ledges, and with so much blue ice now showing, we were very aware of icefall running farther and wider than usual. Not many sheltered spots on Louise right now!
On the other hand, the climbs at Evan Thomas yesterday were definitely suffering badly from the effects of the Chinook. Judging from the amount of water flowing, they may not outlast this warmth. Surface meltwater made for very wet climbing, but more concerning was the delamination that we observed over the course of the day. Snowline was noticeably thinning low down but still hanging in; however, the first pitch of Moonlight was just body width at the base and significantly detached from the rock in the steeper middle section, and we gave it a miss. If it hasn’t already fallen off, it will likely need quite a few cold days for it to bond again. The fat conditions on Too Low for Zero this year are no more (the first pitch is ice-free now) and there is plenty of creaky-looking hangfire up above just waiting for an opportunity to spoil your day. Chantilly Falls was the sole exception — it's wet but fat and blue from top to bottom. As with Louise, though, there is no snow remaining to prevent icefall from up high from threatening the climb down low.
In addition to spontaneous icefall throughout the day, we also saw several minor rockfalls, just another reminder of the downside of the Spring-like conditions right now.
Happy Hunting!
Carl Johnston, AG/RG
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