[MCR] Mount Athabasca - Columbia Icefields Area

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

Hey All,
Just back from 3 days of Guiding in the Columbia Icefields.
Spent the first day as a skills day on Parkers Ridge, second day we were up Boundary Peak, and today we summited Athabasca via the AA Col.
On the way up to Boundary Peak, the ice tongue that gives access to the Little A Glacier was down to bare ice, the firn line having pulled up onto the flatter terrain above. We climbed a line through the crevasses on the climbers left as the centre gully feature was producing a lot of melt-out rockfall when the sun pulled around and hit the ice. 
The travel on the snow up to Boundary Col was better than expected. No more than boot top penetration the whole way up to the col with a few saggy and thinly bridged crevasses to watch out for en route. Up and over the summit was great and good glissading on the descent down to the meadows below the peak.
Athabasca today seemed like a big crap shoot given the forecast heat. But with a completely uncivilized start (we left the campground just before 12:00 midnight) we were able to get up and down before the big warm up, and before any of the avalanche prone slopes saw any sun affect at all. 
Boot penetration from the toe of the Glacier up to the bergschrund was only a few times above boot top, but more consistently around 15cm's. Crossing the schrund was as easy as it gets, and sticking to old avalanche debris and track(s) for the ascent to the col gave solid and supportive steps all the way except for about 30m near the top. Getting away from the debris meant having to work though a ~10cm crust with moist snow below that did a poor job of carrying weight. There are a number of avalanches that look to be only a few days old or so old that have run from the Athabasca Shoulder / climbers left side above you, as you're walking up the AA Glacier toward the bergschrund. Numerous, all between size 1 and 1.5ish. All solar triggered and heavy and wet looking failing on the ground in most cases. Made us pretty happy we were down and off the glacier well before 10am when the sun started to affect these same slopes and features. The climbing line to the col was in full sun by about 10:30am this morning.
The climbing above the AA Col was occasionally punchy, without the moist snow underneath. From the Silverhorn Summit to the True Summit gave good cramponing the whole way across. Lot's of action from the seracs and icefalls in the area and we did witness one large collapse from the serac immediately lookers right of the Hourglass route below when we were descending from the summit. 
Looked like 4 maybe 5 other parties on the mountain today - many of which started at or later than 3am and were turned back by the heat.
Given the forecast the snow won't likely be able to recover overnight at all right now. Heads up with big slopes overhead, probably best to avoid them until things cool down. I'd bet aspect probably won't matter much with the expected temperatures.
Time to go rock climbing :)

Mike Trehearne AG/ASG 
Cloud Nine Guides Inc.Blog & Photos At:www.cloudnineguides.com www.facebook.com/cloudnineguides
 		 	   		  
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