[MCR] Mount Edith - North and Center Peaks, Banff Park - July 18, 2011

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

Climbed the North and Center Peaks on Edith on Sunday with an advanced
scrambles leadership course from the ACC Calgary. Great weather for a
change. Watched a party on the Kain / Perren route on Louis which looked
completely dry from what I could see. Some snow was visible on the descent
gullies below the face of Louis.

There was snow right at Cory Pass and I suspect there may be snow on the N
side of the pass on the shady slopes.

Oddly enough we were only the second group to sign the register on the
center peak of Edith this summer... We did not encounter any snow on either
the N or Center peaks of Edith until we tried to descend the gulley to the
col between the Center and South peaks. There was enough snow to make things
look a bit too interesting. Maybe another week or so of good weather will
finally melt this out.

Beware - Pitons removed: We were going to use the fixed angle pitons on the
side of the gulley to lower and rappel below the snow and ugly scramble
section to get to the South / Center peak col. When testing the first piton
by pulling on it with a sling, it came flying out (with almost no force) and
hit me in the helmet. When I replaced the piton back in the crack and drove
it in with a rock the remaining piton was wedged loose and fell out. Yikes.
I decided to remove both since it became obvious that frost wedging had
loosened the block they were sitting in beyond the point where I could
replace them safely.

Had a good look around and noticed that the scrambles route on Rundle now
looked dry as did the vast majority of the scrambles route up Cascade. Still
some snow visible up high on Cascade. Norquay didn't appear to have too much
left in the way of snow from our vantage point either.

Off in the distance we could see the N face of Assiniboine as well as the
classic ridge route looked to still be plastered with snow and bright white.

A lot of the front ranges east of Banff looked pretty dry at this point and
had certainly lost a lot of snow since I was last in Banff a few weeks ago.

Maybe summer has finally arrived... Oh, by the way, the mosquitoes on the
hike out were horrendous...

Cyril Shokoples
Mountain Guide
http://www.rescuedynamics.ca
http://www.rescuedynamics.com