Climbed the North Face Couloir on Mt Fay today. This is the eastern most line
on the face just east of the big ice bulge.
COLD up there, -7c overnight and light winds from the NW-felt like winter!!
Frozen scree on the lower approach, first pitch on the quartzite was dry, upper
limestone pitches were slippery!! Glacier is in surprisingly good shape.
50-100cm of crusty, fairly evenly distrubuted snow mostly held weight well with
some sections of depressing crust failure. Hut is in good shape but the new
outhouse door is buried behind about 3 tons of hard wind driven snow. We
arrived late, left early and didn’t make the giant effort:)
Face was in good shape but the schrund was a bit of sporty crawling on hands
and knees for me. We found no concerns with the snowpack at present. It felt
good everywhere we went and the windward slopes are stripped of snow for now.
Cornices above all the routes but this line had the least exposure and it was
easy to get onto the summit ridge.
Bits of water ice all over the place but not many that really connect yet.
Soon though.
Larry Stanier
ACMG Mountain Guide
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