[MCR] Fairy Meadows- Adamants/Selkirks

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

Hi all,
Sarah Hueniken & I just spent July 28-Aug 1st in the Fairy Meadows area with
a group of guests. 
  The weather over the 5 days was quite convective with storms and
lightening at any time of the day.  In general we had good overnight freezes
which made for fast and easy travel on the snow. On July 31 & Aug 1st the
surface snow did not refreeze and we saw several size 1 point releases as
well as increased icefall avalanches and rockfall.   The north face of
Yggdrasil (gothics glacier area) had an older size 3 slab release to glacier
ice- perhaps from early July.
  Rock ridge routes in the area were free of any new snow with lingering
winter snow at higher elevations.  The glacier coverage is still very good
with well bridged crevasses.  The north face glacier routes on Adamant look
like they have become more challenging with glacier recession which has
increased the icefall hazard in the area.  Mt Austerity via the Ironman
Austerity col looked to have reasonable crossings over the bergshrund.  We
were unable to climb through the two bergshrunds on Pioneer pass but this
might be possible with a better freeze and a short section of overhanging
ice climbing. 
  We helicoptered in and out of the hut as the drive to Swan Creek and the
hiking trail in both sounded difficult or perhaps impassible.
Have fun out there!

Kirsten Knechtel
ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide
www.kirstenknechtel.com
-- 






-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/mcr/attachments/20120803/4557e0ab/attachment.htm>