[MCR] Columbia Icefields May 15th, 2015

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

Got turned around today on Mt. Andromeda by Shooting Gallery’s little crux pitch. It was a choice between an unprotectable couple of meters of friable, downsloping, snowy rock to reach decent rock and gear on the climbers right side, or running it out up 15m of thin snow/ice with an unknown finish. Or bailing.

Snow conditions were pretty good until around noon and then it was somewhat weak and variable in the moraines below the AA glacier. It was snowing lightly for awhile and never got really hot. We saw only small dry sloughs at the Icefields but saw a couple of big wet sloughs around Howse peak and Hector Lake on the mid-afternoon drive home.

It sounds like Asteroid Alley has been climbed at least twice and a party was making good progress on it when we bailed. Andromeda Strain looks kinda grim at the top. No water ice on the last pitch. 

Athabasca glacier still looks in good shape for ski travel on the climbers left side but the middle looks complicated and the climbers right side looks as easy and dangerous as ever.

From the road-
Athabasca N side looked white, with no obvious signs of avalanche activity. All the various seracs looked not as nasty as some years but they are still hanging in there in all the usual spots. Patiently waiting.

Slipstream is still climbable but looks kinda scary. The summit cornices appeared gigantic through binoculars in mediocre light. The serac above the climbers left border of the route looks to have a nasty crack in it. Yukk.

Larry Stanier
ACMG Mountain Guide