[MCR] Rockies, Coire Dubh Integrale

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

I guided an ascent of Coire Dubh and the first rock pitch of the Integrale yesterday, Dec 10th. The ice is in good shape and there is a lot of it, several flows are formed in the amphitheatre that the ice route finishes in. The common corner crack that starts the Integrale, and is the crux, is exceptionally cruxy right now as it has a record amount of ice in it. It is quality mixed climbing, just much harder than when the corner is dry and you can climb it without crampons and bare hands. I placed a 13 cm screw and a 16 cm screw as well as half a dozen stoppers and three cams on the lead.

The old two bolt anchor at the top of the ice route is down to one bolt. We rappeled the highest ice pitch from a single bolt on the front side of the big boulder 20 meters above the ice. I backed up the bolt with small redirected nut that I'm sure someone will scoop. That anchor could use a piton back-up. There is a new two bolt anchor close to a man sized tree climber's right of the snow slope leading to the last ice pitch.

We punched trough several small pain-in-the-butt windslabs en route. None of them wanted to move.

Happy trails,
and Merry Christmas!

Barry Blanchard
Mountain Guide
www.barryblanchard.ca
www.yamnuska.com

First pitch of Coire Dubh Dec 10/12:

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: P1040049.jpeg
Type: image/jpg
Size: 105751 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/mcr/attachments/20121211/c4176476/attachment-0002.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------


A modern mixed masterpiece waiting creation just right of Coire Dubh:

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: P1040048.jpeg
Type: image/jpg
Size: 120632 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/mcr/attachments/20121211/c4176476/attachment-0003.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------