[MCR] Mt. Fay

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

Up at the Neil Colgan hut, above Moraine Lake over the last two days.
Approached via Schiesser Ledges which are in good shape. Some snow on the upper third but easily passable. Climbed Mt. Little and it was in great shape, avoided most of the snow slopes and stuck to the rock ridge.
Tried Fay today, in poor weather. Snowing most of the day at 3000 m.  Lots of snowpack on the N Face routes.  Roth/Kallen has a giant cornice overhanging it, and has produced a large avalanche within the last week. Fracture line down the the ice and 100cm thick just above the schrund (see photo). Clearly a deep instability at work here.  Looked ugly.
So we tried the regular W Ridge route, but bailed half way up the initial snowslope. Although a 10cm crust sort of carried us, beneath was 100+ cm of wet slush sitting on the ice.  Too uncertain for us, so we bailed.  Felt good to be carrying shovels, etc.
It was a cold and blustery day, and we were still nervous about this north facing snowslope. Lots of avalanche potential remains.
Perron route was fine on descent, easy travel.
And finally - the regular SW ridge route on Mt. Temple is very snowy (photo attached).
Grant StathamMountain Guide
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/mcr/attachments/20110715/ae769e6a/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Mt Fay - Roth Kallen July 15.jpg
Type: application/octet-stream
Size: 218010 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/mcr/attachments/20110715/ae769e6a/attachment-0002.obj>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Temple normal route July 14.jpg
Type: application/octet-stream
Size: 282925 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/mcr/attachments/20110715/ae769e6a/attachment-0003.obj>