Hello,
I spent the last few days on the Divide where we traversed the 5 Lyells on the 27th and climbed Mount Alexandra on the 28th.
We observed up to 35cm of new snow above 2500m on the SE Lyell Glacier. Crossing to Lyell 1 from the hut involved a lot of probing on the glacier and a breakable boot top crust. We were able to bypass the enormous bergschrund in the Lyell 1-2 col by climbing up a snow filled couloir on climber's right which brought us to the summit ridge of #1. Cool temps and a bit of wind above 3000m had settled the new snow and made for easy travel over #1, 2 and 3. The schrund on Lyell 3 was easily crossed on a narrow snow bridge. Despite thick clouds the sun began melting the new snow and several solar sluffs up to size 1.5 were observed in steep terrain. The snow on the 5.4 rock pitch of #4 was melted out and the rock was mainly dry. The snow bridges on the Lyell Glacier had softened significantly by mid afternoon on our descent from #5.
On the 28th we got bumped over to a good landing near the base of Alexandra Glacier in the headwaters of Lyell Creek, approx. 2300m. A good overnight freeze provided easy travel on the mainly snow covered Alexandra Glacier up to the Whiterose/Alexandra Col. Light rain below 3000m softened the snow on the lower SW slopes so we stayed on the rock ridge which was bare until we got above 3000m. We were then able to avoid patches of verglass by staying on the new snow. Evidence of solar sluffs up to size 1 were observed on steeper parts of the upper SW slopes. A couple more cms of fresh snow accumulated over the day above 3000m. Thick clouds kept things cool almost all day and no rockfall was observed.
Cheers,
Pierre
Pierre Hungr
ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide