| Had the Weeping Wall to ourselves today. Conditions there felt more typical of mid-March, with both the lower and upper tiers looking bleached and sun affected.
At 6am it was -13C under thin cloud with none of the forecast wind. The right side route had mostly crisp snice that climbed well and yielded decent screws with digging. The less shaded Centre line looked noticeably more sun rotted, and the left side and Snivelling were showing very little blue ice with significant delamination down low and lots of running water. I suspect the latter two would be trickier than usual to climb and protect right now.
At the top of lower wall, despite the lack of wind we felt inspired by the continuing cool temps and cloud (-8C at 9am) to head up the Weeping Pillar. The track to the upper tier is well beaten right now and though we carried avi gear with us, the snowpack seemed well settled and unreactive there.
Initially, we found similar ice conditions as lower down, with relatively fast travel on styrofoam, although good screws were less available. There are still a few precarious daggers nearby, but only a little of the hangfire is directly overhead and there is no significant cornicing there right now. The pillar currently has several climbable options on each pitch and the easiest combination might go at a not-too-funky WI5.
However, the sun hits the upper pitches by ~10:30 now (09:30 for the lower wall), and by the time we reached the final pitch the clouds had disappeared, the snice was slush and the heat was pumping (5C at 11:30). With concerns about ice and snow instabilities we turned tail and ran away. On descent we passed through a noticeable inversion (-5C over just a few 100m) that will be something to keep in mind if it remains calm.
Get after it when conditions improve again!
Carl Johnston ACMG Alpine & Rock Guide |