[MCR] Mount Victoria & Mount Lefroy - Rockies.

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

Hey there,
Just back from a few beautiful days of guiding out of the Abbotts Pass Hut climbing Mounts Victoria & Lefroy.
The approach gully below the hut isn't great as Larry mentioned in a post last week, but getting better with traffic.
Both peaks were in great shape, although would have been nice to have seen it just a few degrees cooler up there. We climbed Lefroy early saturday morning, and despite being +5C at the hut at 4am, the clear skies seemed to have cooled things down enough to get up and down safely. The well settled snow gave us near perfect supportive step kicking almost the whole way, but pitched out the last 80m or so as it's almost down to bare ice. Things were melting back fast while we were there, and i'd expect to see a lot more of the snow melt off if all the heat in the forecast shows up this week. Could be worth bringing a few ice screws up with you, if your into that sort of thing. At 10am the sun was heating the summit ridge enough to start spitting the occasional rock down the gullies and by noon the routes were in full view of the sun, turning the face into a bowling alley. Seems like if your going to go for it this week, starting a bit earlier than usual might be a decent idea, and be back in the hut early to watch the rockfall from there. 
The following day on Mount Victoria was much the same, warm and windless at the hut at 3am. The clear skies were enough to give us a weak freeze which also was enough to get over to the summit and back safely. The rock terrain on the route was completely dry and made for good travel. Things warmed up fast though, and by 10am you could feel the punch from the sun starting to really affect the snow.  By noon we were watching numerous loose/wet avalanches, triggered from the ridgecrest, run down the east face. Where there wasn't rock, there's a few patches of ice starting to poke through on more solar tilted features, but for the most part the snow was still providing good supportive steps thoughout. Still lot's of snow on the sickle as as well and I'd bet it will be a little while yet before we see the ice come through on the steep bit there.There's water available at a few different places along the ridge to fill up en route if you need it - I'd imagine they'll still be there for the next week with the melt we'll likely see.
All in all, great travel up there. I'd just expect to see conditions changing fast, almost by the hour this next week with the heat in the forecast. Once it cools down again it's going to be pretty much perfect up there.
Hope you all had the chance to put the weather to good use this weekend. Have fun up there! 
Mike Trehearne
Alpine Guide & Apprentice Ski Guidemike at cloudnineguides.com
Trip Photos up at:www.facebook.com/cloudnineguides 		 	   		  
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