[MCR] Rockies, Guinness Gully/Coire Dubh

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

I guided Guinness Gully today. Despite the forecast, we had calm conditions all morning with -7/-5 temps, and when we left around noon there were only trace amounts of new snow. Overcast skies prevented me from seeing clearly to ridgetop but I suspect there was little happening up there either in the form of precip or transport.

Guinness is a hook-fest from bottom to top and only required real tool swinging for a few meters on the last pitch. Despite the heavy traffic and lack of precip, the first pitch is still wide and fat with decent screws . As usual, there were a few lingering windslabs between the pitches, but none that showed any inclination to move. The descent gully had good styrofoam for cramponing and seemed well bonded everywhere. Judging from the otter track, some bold folks have been glissading it, but with the very firm, fast conditions and big air potential over the usual rock drops, we gave that a miss.


I guided Coire Dubh yesterday, Feb 12th. We saw sunny skies with moderate to strong swirling winds. There is an unusual amount of snow bonded to the ice throughout the middle of the climb. As a result there were really only two pitches of ice -- the 30m start and finish pitches. There were a few thin, punchy windslabs slabs in the middle of the section as usual, but like in Field, these seemed happy to stay put. There was also no snow transport occurring, despite the winds. Of note: Half of the amphitheatre is seeing sun until mid-day now, so we noted plenty of minor stonefalls. All of these funnelled through the chokepoint halfway up the climb, so it wouldn't be a good place to linger these days.  The mixed pitch above the ice has dried out recently, so although there was still a little verglas complicating the crux moves, it felt only a little harder than the usual grade. Though we descended using the new bolted anchors (thanks K-Country!?), the upper Integrale rock pitches looked mostly snow-free. 

Have fun!

Carl Johnston, RG/AAG
www.yamnuska.com







  

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