[MCR] Tonquin Valley conditions August 7 - 11th.

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

I was in the Tonquin Valley from August 7-11th. 

Many of the classic rock
 faces and steep ribs in the Tonquin still have snow and wet 
sections, the routes only just coming into condition. Ridges are dry and 
snow gullies are in excellent condition making for quick up and down 
approaches and descents. Schrund crossings and crevasse bridges also looked 
good overall. The greatest concern at the moment is with sun exposed 
snow slopes at higher elevation. Besides rock fall from snow melt, the 
slopes themselves were quite touchy, needing only the slightest trigger 
to slough the upper 10 - 15 cm of isothermal snow. These sloughs quickly
 gather enough velocity and volume to dislodge a climber.

We climbed two peaks. The first, on August 8th was the Northern 
most peak on the rampart wall besides Redoubt from a long snow gully between Redoubt and Drawbridge which leads to a 
ridge climb to the top of a distinct pointed summit. Our intention was the NW ridge of Redoubt but we found the final snow couloir was wet and not in condition and the ridge appeared to have still much snow on it. So we made for the summit of our backup option. 

As well we climbed Paragon peaks East ridge via a new variation at 
the base of the South face on August 10th. These routes were in excellent condition 
apart from the upper snow slopes on Paragon which required careful 
navigation to stay on the lowest angled slopes or high on ridge tops to avoid 
avalanche slopes. 

We had one feeble a.m. freeze at 2000 meters on August 8th and apart from that temperatures were always above zero. 

I included two pictures from this trip of the front and backside of the ramparts.

Eric Dumerac - Professional Mountain Guide - IFMGA/ACMG
Mountain Skills Academy
✆Canada: Canmore 011- 403-609-1564  
 		 	   		  
Tonquin Valley conditions August 7 - 11th
http://skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?cid=2a7e06ee4544d78e&page=browse&resid=2A7E06EE4544D78E!165&type=5&Bpub=SDX.Photos&Bsrc=Photomail&authkey=oZJpz1VQ7qs%24
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/mcr/attachments/20110813/e7b9d075/attachment.html>