Got turned around today on Mt. Andromeda by Shooting Gallery’s little crux
pitch. It was a choice between an unprotectable couple of meters of friable,
downsloping, snowy rock to reach decent rock and gear on the climbers right
side, or running it out up 15m of thin snow/ice with an unknown finish. Or
bailing.
Snow conditions were pretty good until around noon and then it was somewhat
weak and variable in the moraines below the AA glacier. It was snowing lightly
for awhile and never got really hot. We saw only small dry sloughs at the
Icefields but saw a couple of big wet sloughs around Howse peak and Hector Lake
on the mid-afternoon drive home.
It sounds like Asteroid Alley has been climbed at least twice and a party was
making good progress on it when we bailed. Andromeda Strain looks kinda grim at
the top. No water ice on the last pitch.
Athabasca glacier still looks in good shape for ski travel on the climbers left
side but the middle looks complicated and the climbers right side looks as easy
and dangerous as ever.
>From the road-
Athabasca N side looked white, with no obvious signs of avalanche activity. All
the various seracs looked not as nasty as some years but they are still hanging
in there in all the usual spots. Patiently waiting.
Slipstream is still climbable but looks kinda scary. The summit cornices
appeared gigantic through binoculars in mediocre light. The serac above the
climbers left border of the route looks to have a nasty crack in it. Yukk.
Larry Stanier
ACMG Mountain Guide
_______________________________________________
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