[MCR] Mt Athabasca, Columbia Icefields.

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

Climbed Mt Athabasca today via the AA col route. We were 4 rope teams .

Conditions were good today insofar as the Avalanche Hazard was low, 
we had cool temps and decent weather. There is still a lot of snow on 
the mountain, probably more than usual for this time of year. Some 
natural activity was observed which occurred  over the weekend. It 
was not evident last Friday when we were at Parkers Ridge.

Travel in general was not that great, with a thin crust covering 
drier new snow. This is  sitting on top of a crust down about 25cm. 
On the upper mountain above the gullies of the AA col, foot 
penetration varied between mid calf to knee deep.
Post holing on the lower glacier down to the moraines continued and 
it didn't seem like it was much shallower as you descended,

Another interesting observation is that the headwall on the Athabasca 
glacier is looking very broken up for this time of year. There may 
have been some major shifting or collapsing on the upper ramp.

Also of note is that the climbers parking lot for Mt Athabasca no 
longer exists.
All parking is now down by the lower gate. Parks Canada has not had a 
chance to fix this area yet and it is a bit messy down there.
The climb now will take probably close to an additional hour to walk 
up and down the road.

The gate to the toe of the Athabasca glacier was still closed yesterday.

Special thanks to Alex and Patrick who punched a trail up the AA col 
route yesterday. The footsteps were  appreciated on the lower 
glacier.  The staircase should last a while yet...

Peter Amann
Matt Reynolds
Cyril Shokoples
(Mountain Guides)

Peter Amann
pamann at incentre.net