From mcr at informalex.org Mon Jul 13 00:20:00 2009 From: mcr at informalex.org (Public Mountain Conditions Report) Date: Sun, 12 Jul 2009 22:20:00 -0600 Subject: [MCR] Rockies: Brazeau Message-ID: Walked into Brazeau yesterday via Pobotkan Creek and climbed it today. We found the guidebook description for the approach a little confusing but if you take the left hand fork at the head of the valley and then trend up right on goat trails between the two cliff bands it works fine. No freeze and soft snow conditions today as reported elsewhere in the range. It's a good time to do this peak as the scree/talus on the upper part of the approach is soft and easy walking due to the recent rains and the scree slopes on the peak itself are covered in 10-20 cm of good kick-stepping snow (that snow won't last long). Loose snow avalanches up to small size 2 and a thin slab on a steep east aspect size 1.5, all in the recent storm snow. Mark Klassen Mountain Guide www.alpinism.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mcr at informalex.org Tue Jul 14 01:34:43 2009 From: mcr at informalex.org (Public Mountain Conditions Report) Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2009 23:34:43 -0600 Subject: [MCR] Bugaboos July 12th,13th 2009. Message-ID: <9AB41C5BA740408D80A984AFA37383D2@larry2e4f7cdf6> Walked into the Bugs on a warm july 12th evening-conditions looked great for almost all the rock routes. Rain starting around 8am on the 13th(monday) and it rained most of the day and looked like more to come. No snowfall to the top of Pigeon at 2pm. Nil avalanche activity observed. Good travel still on the glaciers and to the Bugaboo-Snowpatch col when things are cool. Some ice starting to show in places and at low elevations. Howser east face schrunds still looked manageable but sporty for ascending. Road in fair shape. Survivable in a city-slicker Subaru with 5 people and gear. Larry Stanier ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide laristan at telus.net -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mcr at informalex.org Tue Jul 14 01:34:46 2009 From: mcr at informalex.org (Public Mountain Conditions Report) Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2009 22:34:46 -0700 Subject: [MCR] Vacation reply In-Reply-To: <9AB41C5BA740408D80A984AFA37383D2@larry2e4f7cdf6> Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mcr at informalex.org Tue Jul 14 17:19:02 2009 From: mcr at informalex.org (Public Mountain Conditions Report) Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:19:02 -0600 Subject: [MCR] Abbott Pass and the Death Trap Message-ID: July 10-12 we hiked from Moraine Lake over Wenkchemna and Opabin Passes, up to Abbot Pass and down the Death Trap to Lake Louise. The Moraine Lake to Lake O?Hara was generally good travel with typical snow for the year. The glaciers are still well covered and crossing Opabin Pass easy. Crampons were not needed. The Abbot Pass gully was pretty quiet for rocks, although the party behind us reported a near miss from rock fall. There were numerous avalanches to size 2.5 from Glacier Peak and Lefroy. Tempting though it might be for strong parties that get to the hut early, Lefroy is not a good choice for an afternoon ascent under these conditions. I do the trip up from Lake O?Hara to Abbot Pass about three times a year, and find the big gully up to the hut to be most dangerous early in the season. The path that goes across the whole gully low down is not a safe one for July since it is highly exposed to rock fall from both sides and avalanches from Lefroy. Your best bet is to hug the left wall under Victoria until you reach a large gully that often spits large rocks. Cross the gully quickly and up again to the protection of the Victoria. From there you can cross onto the snow ridge in the middle. No freeze overnight made the early morning descent through the Trap easy. The big crevasse is well covered and should be easy to cross for a few weeks yet. The Icefall was pretty quiet. It would take a really big ice fall to reach the descent route, and in my experience big ice falls are preceded by a number of small and medium falls from the same spot and every few minutes as the ice deforms in preparation for the big event. Making the effort to monitor frequency and size of ice falls as you head into the Trap is a good idea before committing yourself. The most exposed section took our slow party 20 minutes to cross. A fast team could be through in 10 minutes or less. Albi Sole ACMG, IFMGA via Peter Tucker ACMG Executive Director ed at acmg.ca 403-949-3587 403-689-4324 (mobile) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mcr at informalex.org Wed Jul 15 00:48:31 2009 From: mcr at informalex.org (Public Mountain Conditions Report) Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:48:31 -0600 Subject: [MCR] More on the Bugaboos... Message-ID: <1D6C930AEAEC48C99261EDB55579DEC1@DELL6400> Spent the last few days in East Creek and we were able to climb Marmolata and the Kain Route on Saturday (July 11). Conditions on Marmalota were somewhat slow and sloppy due to patches of winter snow that caused wet lichen, dripping corners and the occasional verglas sections. The Kain route has quite a few snow patches on the lower third of the route but they were all avoidable. We did need to get into the snow for about 30 meters just before the first bolted rappel station. The rest of the route is dry. When we arrived on July 9th the total snowpack depth (HS) was 225cms and when we left on the 12th it was 180cms. This rapid settlement however was not reflected in the alpine except on due south to west aspects. Overall travel conditions were decent in the morning but broke down quickly as midday approached, with boot top to mid shin penetration. Crevasses were starting to open on the East Creek side of the Pigeon - Howser Col but the Vowell and Bugaboo glaciers still had good coverage, possibly more now with the precip over the past couple of days. Pigeon looked very snowy. Cheers Gord Irwin Mountain Guide Mike Stuart Alpine/Assistant Ski Guide -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: IMG_Pigeon0001.JPG Type: image/jpeg Size: 79433 bytes Desc: not available Url : From mcr at informalex.org Wed Jul 15 02:06:51 2009 From: mcr at informalex.org (Public Mountain Conditions Report) Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:06:51 -0700 Subject: [MCR] Toby/Hamill Group, Purcells July 9-12 Message-ID: <4F67ECA3C80740B694B98589665EB22A@mail2world.com> Spent a few days exploring the Toby/Hamill Group of the Purcells. This area is a beautiful wilderness mountaineering destination in the heart of the Purcell Wilderness Conservancy, where solitude is almost assured. During our stay we found generally good conditions for mountain travel. We arrived in the mountains at the tail end of a wet spell and found rain soaked snow on the glaciers below 2700m and a few cm's of fresh storm snow above that. There was a small amount of fresh snow and verglass on the rock in the high alpine but that was gone by Friday afternoon with the return of the clear weather. By Saturday things has dried out completely with great glacier travel and warm alpine rock. There is now quite a bit of bare ice exposed at the glacier toes and many crevasses are opening up. Two recent size 2 slab avalanches were observed, both releasing down to glacier ice on steep northwesterly aspects at around 2800m. There were still some significant cornices lingering on the ridges and we observed first hand evidence of a large cornice fall upon arriving at the summit of Mt Hamill. The upper southeast ridge and the summit itself is a massive cornice, and one chunk the size of two vans had very recently released and entrained a bunch of snow off the face below, resulting in a size 2 avalanche. Given the amount of snow and cornices lingering in the alpine, I suspect there is still potential for similar events to occur with the forecasted warm weather. Jeff Volp Ski Guide Kimberley, BC

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Unlimited Email Storage – POP3 – Calendar – SMS – Translator – Much More! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Hamill Gl.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 118905 bytes Desc: not available Url : -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Hamill NE Side.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 159509 bytes Desc: not available Url : -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Mt Toby East Side.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 77550 bytes Desc: not available Url : From mcr at informalex.org Thu Jul 16 12:54:10 2009 From: mcr at informalex.org (Public Mountain Conditions Report) Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:54:10 -0600 Subject: [MCR] Bugaboo Conditions Message-ID: <19740414191416.B1B392F3278E163B@edtnaa02.telusplanet.net> Up at the Kain hut from July 11-15. Great travel conditions on the Crescent, Vowel and Pigeon glaciers with penetration in the late pm only to boot top despite no overnight freeze. All the routes of the Crescent Towers area are dry; NE Ridge on Bugaboo has snow on the very bottom of the route but otherwise dry (I suspect that the upper chimneys still hold snow); Kain route is dry and in good shape. West facing Snowpatch Routes in good shape. W ridge of Pigeon is dry to the small col between the 2nd and 3rd summits. Snow from there to the summit; we did not use crampons but did take ice axes. Bugaboo/Snowpatch col is in good shape with the schrunds just starting to show with good footing and a nice line of steps up it. We had a great day craging on the nice cracks of lower Applebee Dome. Cheers James Blench UIAGM -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mcr at informalex.org Thu Jul 16 18:41:50 2009 From: mcr at informalex.org (Public Mountain Conditions Report) Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:41:50 -0600 Subject: [MCR] Aberdeen Message-ID: <19740415034544.9B303056EBC4A3ED@edmwaa04.telusplanet.net> Up Aberdeen with Percy Woods today. Temps at the Chateau at 5:30 were +9 so no overnight freeze including up high. Good conditions on the route. The schrund is easily passable with snow all the way to the rock band. We were through the steep snow early and I am not sure we would have felt that good being there later in the day without the freeze. Penetration was only boot top in most places but there is definitely moist snow over ice. The sun was hitting the upper slopes by 9:30 am. There were a few weak crevasse bridges to negotiate on the glacier bench. There is still enough snow on the descent to minimize the bone jarring scree. Marc Ledwidge Percy Woods ACMG/UIAGM -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mcr at informalex.org Thu Jul 16 21:22:39 2009 From: mcr at informalex.org (Public Mountain Conditions Report) Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2009 19:22:39 -0600 Subject: [MCR] Mountain Conditions Summary for the Rockies and Columbia Mts. July 16, 2009 Message-ID: The alpine conditions are in transition with more melting moving the neve line higher and variable snow conditions depending upon the location and time of day. Good travel conditions have been reported when there has been a freeze, but in many places there is a thin crust that is breaking down early and mid calf foot penetrations are not uncommon. Thinner crevasse bridges, trickier bergshrund crossings and concern for cornice falls seems to be a common theme from the reports in both the Rockies and Columbias. With mainly sunny skies and warm temperatures forecast through the weekend this means that many alpine routes should be possible, but an early start is in order to get down and off the snow before it gets too soft and the avalanche danger rises. Rockfall potential is another thing to keep in mind as the snow melt keeps exposing more loose stones higher up the peaks. Rock routes throughout the ranges are reported in good shape with only a few lingering snow patches at higher elevations. Enjoy. Brad White ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide. From mcr at informalex.org Fri Jul 17 10:40:35 2009 From: mcr at informalex.org (Public Mountain Conditions Report) Date: Fri, 17 Jul 2009 08:40:35 -0600 Subject: [MCR] rock shoes left at Grassi Message-ID: <2FE30EAB-6F18-474D-AE26-7B1FC2FEF125@telus.net> Not my usual post, but I left my brown Anasazi velcros below Brave New Plan at Grassi Lakes on Wed, July 15th. I'd love to get them back. Barry Blanchard UIAGM/IFMGA Mountain Guide barryb3 at telus.net 1 403 609 4615 cell 1 403 609 1321 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mcr at informalex.org Fri Jul 17 10:49:07 2009 From: mcr at informalex.org (Public Mountain Conditions Report) Date: Fri, 17 Jul 2009 08:49:07 -0600 Subject: [MCR] Lefroy, Fuhrmann Ledges Message-ID: <3e9f2e410907170749j633f911alc9139b9d63a8fcea@mail.gmail.com> Up Furhman ledges, then up snow covered west facing slopes on north end of Lefroy to north ridge, down west face. Yesterday with a guest at a moderate pace it took about 15 hrs to Lake O'Hara with a 2:30 am start from Lake Louise. It was a beautiful day with lots of sun and periods of cloud later in the day. Getting up to the Fuhrmann ledges is pleasant with firm snow patches giving some reprieve from the miserable talus. The ledges are mostly dry and travelled well. Despite warm temps and a cloudy night (+7C, overcast at the parking lot at 2:30 am, +8C at 9 am on the west side of Lefroy) travel was overall very good with ankle to boot top penetration. The route is still in great shape since Rich's post, and with the recent storm snow the normal W Face is even better than it was when I was there a week ago -- good, secure steps top to bottom. When we descended around 1:30 pm the upper half of the face was still firm while the lower half was softening up, wet with up to mid-calf penetration. We were glad for cool, cloudy afternoon skies and the fact we weren't coming down much later in the day. Glissading created moderately sized slow sloughs. Lots of activity on the E face of Victoria starting early in the morning -- up to size 2.0 wet avalanches running into the Death Trap and regular, albeit minor, serac fall. Regards, Tom Wolfe -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mcr at informalex.org Fri Jul 17 19:19:20 2009 From: mcr at informalex.org (Public Mountain Conditions Report) Date: Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:19:20 -0600 Subject: [MCR] Rock fall on Edith Center Peak Message-ID: I guided the Kain route on Mount Louis today with one guest. We were heading back down the Edith Pass trail when suddenly I heard a big Noise and a HUGE section on Mt. Edith Center Peak broke loose. We were in thick forest but through a gap I saw the whole thing. We had to run up hill to make sure we were out of the way! We could hear Volkswagen size rocks crashing thru the forest. I hate to think what the outcome would have been like if we were 5 minutes further. Marco Delesalle ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mcr at informalex.org Fri Jul 17 19:47:20 2009 From: mcr at informalex.org (Public Mountain Conditions Report) Date: Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:47:20 -0600 Subject: [MCR] Rock fall on Edith Center Peak Message-ID: Just to clarified things. The rocks went past the trail leaving craters. Marco Delesalle ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mcr at informalex.org Sat Jul 18 00:42:07 2009 From: mcr at informalex.org (Public Mountain Conditions Report) Date: Fri, 17 Jul 2009 22:42:07 -0600 Subject: [MCR] Lake O'Hara neighbourhood Message-ID: The heat has been turned on now that the monsoon is over. The big snow slopes are still mostly snow covered but there has yet to be a solid overnight freeze this week. Big and frequent wet avalanches have been running in the sun and that will probably continue for a while yet. Climbed Odaray, Lefroy and Huber in the past 3 days. Rock was dry but snow was moist. Today the east facing summit snowslopes on the normal route on Huber were getting spooky by 10am. Lots of big snowpatches are still melting out on the rock faces too. That means LOTS of rockfall in the daytime heat. Biddle is probably climbable(why?), Hungabee will still be a rockfall nightmare on the normal route for a while yet. Tarrant Buttress is drying out on the lower steep ground, big drifts on the easy ground up high and maybe snow in the last pitches. Finally, the Abbott Pass trail from O'Hara is in mediocre shape. The monsoon has spilt lots of new rocks over the upper 1/3 of the trail and has turned the scree descent from the helipad down into a firm gully. BUMMER! The big canyon that spits boulders onto the lower trail still has lots of snow in it-consider that gun to be still loaded. Larry Stanier ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide laristan at telus.net -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mcr at informalex.org Sun Jul 19 16:10:34 2009 From: mcr at informalex.org (Public Mountain Conditions Report) Date: Sun, 19 Jul 2009 13:10:34 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [MCR] Windy Range, Northern Selkirks, July 18th, 2009 Message-ID: <76281.32378.qm@web112517.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> Spent the last two weeks guiding in the remote Windy Range of the Northern Selkirks?with the ACC?General Mountaineering Camp.??We were able to climb most of the high peaks in the area (Neptune, Trident, Escarpment, etc) and enjoyed the sunny weather of the past week.? The heat of the past several days has meant little or no freezing overnight up to mountain top (3000m+).? As?a result the snowpack has been disappearing rapidly on all aspects and numerous wet avalanches were observed in steeper terrain.? We were very cautious about venturing?into steep snow terrain or areas with potential for snow melt induced rockfall.? Creek crossings have also gotten quite sporting with the melting.? Glacier travel remained good in the deep snowpack areas (1m+) while?shallow snowpack areas are isothermal with weak snow bridges.??Lots more bare ice showing every day.? Rock routes were dry and in good shape on all aspects. Lots of fun climbing to be had but start early, keep the rope tight on the glaciers, and watch for exposure to steep snow slopes until the snow?cools down or settles out a bit more in this area. Enjoy the great weather! Conrad Janzen IFMGA Mountain Guide www.conradjanzenguiding.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mcr at informalex.org Sun Jul 19 20:45:01 2009 From: mcr at informalex.org (Public Mountain Conditions Report) Date: Sun, 19 Jul 2009 18:45:01 -0600 Subject: [MCR] Mt. Ernest Ross, Tangle Ridge Message-ID: Spent the last two days scrambling with a group form the U of A Outdoors Club. July 18 - Sub summits of Mt. Ernest Ross (aka The Twins) - We spent a very warm and windy day on these peaks that are near the Cline River in David Thompson Country. Very little snow remains in these ranges and conditions are perfect for scrambling. A fair amount of bear scat was noted on our trip and two black bears were sighted near the highway where the route begins. July 19 - Tangle Ridge in Jasper National Park - The scramble route on Tangle is in great shape as well. Not as warm today with more cloud cover and a cool breeze blowing off the icefields. Tangle Creek is easily crossed to access the route (see Kane's book description) near the cairns, and the upper route is mostly dry, with only a few snow patchs near the top and a long stripe of snow along the edge of the ridge. No signs of bear activity, but the mosquitoes are getting hungry! Last night was a bit stormy with a fair amount of rain, but it did not appear to deposit any significant snow (if any at all) at higher elevations. Have fun, Jeremy Mackenzie ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide RESCUE DYNAMICS www.rescuedynamics.ca _________________________________________________________________ More storage. Better anti-spam and antivirus protection. Hotmail makes it simple. http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9671357 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: