From mcr at informalex.org Mon Aug 31 22:47:01 2009 From: mcr at informalex.org (Public Mountain Conditions Report) Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:47:01 -0600 Subject: [MCR] Rockies: Victoria S Ridge/Huber Ledges Message-ID: <04DE8553-14EF-4798-909B-3559C698C15D@alpinism.com> Up Vic's S Ridge today and down the Huber Ledges. We bypassed the sickle on the rock but it was awkward and I don't recommend it. Better to put on the poons and walk down the snow. The gully to the Huber Glacier is mostly talus to the lower ice. A bit of gritty black ice leads to ok white ice. The schrund is large and the only bridge is shaky, a rappel off a v-thread is probably necessary. You could have a hard time getting up it right now. The rest of the glacier is in good shape. Mark Klassen Mountain Guide www.alpinism.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mcr at informalex.org Tue Sep 1 08:54:49 2009 From: mcr at informalex.org (Public Mountain Conditions Report) Date: Tue, 01 Sep 2009 06:54:49 -0600 Subject: [MCR] Athabasca and area Message-ID: <20090901125457.7A51112B05A@sparta.incentre.net> Up on boundary Peak Aug 30 enjoying another beautiful summer day. Pretty much totally on ice the whole way up the north glacier. The lower ramp on the north glacier tongue seems to continue to feel steeper as time goes on... The peaks seem drier than they have in many years... A few shots before they are all white again. Peter Amann Peter Amann Mountain Guide pamann at incentre.net -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: A2 Aug 31.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 47223 bytes Desc: not available Url : -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Andromeda Skyladder Aug 31.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 38825 bytes Desc: not available Url : -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: athabasca Aug 31.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 57684 bytes Desc: not available Url : From mcr at informalex.org Tue Sep 1 13:19:11 2009 From: mcr at informalex.org (Public Mountain Conditions Report) Date: Tue, 1 Sep 2009 10:19:11 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [MCR] generosity EEOR In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <98251.16702.qm@web51904.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Just thought I would post a brief message about the route Generosity on EEOR. Great route, on very good rock and well protected! The topo and route description I found on line shows the route starting just right of a cave and trees. The is true...however it is the 2nd cave and trees that you get to after passing Guides Route. Spent a bit of time there deciding which buttress to go up so thought I would make a note of it. The first station is a little hard to find and the second station ends pretty much directly above the first station, so don't go left like some descriptions say. otherwise, very straight forward route finding, long pitches on great rock and nicely protected. Thanks to all those who put in their hard work to make this climb! Sarah Hueniken Alpine Guide From mcr at informalex.org Tue Sep 1 19:13:10 2009 From: mcr at informalex.org (Public Mountain Conditions Report) Date: Tue, 1 Sep 2009 16:13:10 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [MCR] NE Ridge of Bugaboo Spire, August 31, 2009 Message-ID: <840846.63496.qm@web112510.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> We enjoyed a great day on the NE Ridge of Bugaboo Spire yesterday.? The route is dry and in excellent condition.? Crampons were useful?for the approach ice?on the?Crescent Glacier side.? The new bolted rap stations on the way up to the Crescent -?Bugaboo col kept things moving quickly. We descended via the Snowpatch rappels to the Bugaboo Glacier.? The Bugaboo Glacier is becoming quite?complex with many crevasses to navigate around.??We descended?the glacier for a while then moved onto the moraines below Snowpatch Spire.? These moraines?also have plenty of rockfall issues in the lower sections and?we moved through this area very quickly.? Not sure if it was better to be on the moraines or out on the glacier winding through the crevasses.? It did seem?better than traveling through the Bugaboo-Snowpatch Col where we heard/observed frequent rockfall throughout the day even very early in the morning. Beautiful day out in the Bugaboos! Cheers, Conrad Janzen IFMGA Mountain Guide www.conradjanzenguiding.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mcr at informalex.org Thu Sep 3 14:55:36 2009 From: mcr at informalex.org (Public Mountain Conditions Report) Date: Thu, 3 Sep 2009 12:55:36 -0600 Subject: [MCR] Emperor Ridge, Mt Robson Aug 30-Sept 1 Message-ID: Emperor ridge, south face, Mt. Robson. Aug 30-Sept1, 2009 Cycled into Kinney lake, left the bikes there and continued up to a bivy on Emperor Ridge at 9000 feet. Little water running, but a small snow patch on the north side to melt for water. Good climbing on dry rock to the step left around the steep step. Wet snowy rock encountered while traversing into gully. Gully offered good ice, back to the ridge crest. Climbing is steep, exposed and sustained up until 12000 feet where the final ridge starts. Bare rock is followed until the last 400m where the gargoyles start. Double ropes work well to try and protect this area. North face showing a lot of bare ice. Great bivi at the summit with little wind and a low of -3 offering a little freeze over night above 11000 feet. Descended the South face via the SE ridge encountering a lot of bare ice. Left 2 snow pickets at the Ralph Forster hut we brought off the route. Trail down easy to follow back to Kinney Lake, and a coast back to the car park. Total 3 days. James Madden ARG, ASG -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mcr at informalex.org Thu Sep 3 22:42:45 2009 From: mcr at informalex.org (Public Mountain Conditions Report) Date: Thu, 3 Sep 2009 20:42:45 -0600 Subject: [MCR] Mt. Assiniboine - North Ridge Message-ID: Climbed the North Ridge of Mt. Assiniboine this morning in excellent conditions. We did not use crampons or ice axes. However, this is all likely to have changed for the worse. On our departure hike this afternoon a vicious storm arrived bringing lightning, hail, rain and severe winds. The winds were strong enough to drop a couple of new trees on the Assiniboine Lake trail and several on Settlers Road and adjacent logging roads. Nothing is barring progress right now, but we did have to move a couple in order to be able to drive out. The peaks along the drive home through Kootenay National Park were sporting a fresh coating of snow down to approxiamtely 2700m. Is this the beginning of the end? Jeremy Mackenzie ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide jeremymackenzie at hotmail.com _________________________________________________________________ New! Faster Messenger access on the new MSN homepage http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9677406 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mcr at informalex.org Fri Sep 4 00:07:05 2009 From: mcr at informalex.org (Public Mountain Conditions Report) Date: Thu, 3 Sep 2009 22:07:05 -0600 Subject: [MCR] ACMG Mountain Conditions summary issued Sept.3rd, 2009 Message-ID: <7D3AF153BB854B44ADA6F99EA40FBD08@larry2e4f7cdf6> ACMG Mountain Conditions Summary for the Rockies and Columbia Mountains issued Sept. 3rd, 2009. The LONG spell of excellent alpine rock climbing ended, at least temporarily, this afternoon. Today, on Cathedral Mountain(Kicking Horse Pass/O'Hara) it starting raining about 1pm well above 3400m and then as the cold front blew in with high winds and lightning around 3pm, things dramatically cooled and snow starting to stick down to around 2700m. Hard to estimate at this point how much snow fell but my wild guess is that most areas of the Rockies and Columbias received less than 10cms. The question for many routes is-will this snow get a chance to stick to the ice and melt off the rock? It is unlikely enough snow fell to create an widespread avalanche hazard but, I am an expert, and I therefore wouldn't be surprised at all if my guess of snow accumulation is way off!! Obviously any deep drifts are fresh and should be presumed to be fragile. Perhaps the most subtle hazard could be fresh little cornices given all the wind today. Glaciers are still almost completely bare under the new snow.The new snow and wind may obscure some crevasses, especially on the big icefields. Alpine ice climbing is still mostly a bad idea on most of the classic faces and gullies. All those terrifying, just melted out rocks and boulders are still just waiting for a nudge. Patience Grasshopper! Good overnight freeze last night, mostly warm air in the am and big thunderstorms in the pm today. Summer ain't over yet! Larry Stanier ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mcr at informalex.org Sat Sep 5 09:44:41 2009 From: mcr at informalex.org (Public Mountain Conditions Report) Date: Sat, 05 Sep 2009 07:44:41 -0600 Subject: [MCR] A2, Boundary Peak & Columbia Icefields - August 29, 30, , 2009 Message-ID: Spent Saturday, August 29 on the toe of the North Glacier on Athabasca with a Leadership course from the ACC Calgary. Just to reiterate what Peter Amann has said in two recent posts, the Columbia Icefields area is changing radically and many routes are becoming impassable. For example: - the bottom half of the Skyladder is presently a choss ladder, - the gulley on the NW ridge of Athabasca is bereft of snow and ice, - the Andromeda Strain has lost much of the ice that made it attractive and this summer may have altered it for the future, - the AA col route on Athabasca is a scree face with reports of rockfall, - the N Face Hourglass route on Athabasca is rapidly melting and may lose enough ice in the next ten years to wipe it off the map completely, - the Boundary Glacier is a real mess and I would avoid it, - the upper part of A2 now has rockfall issues, plus some scary crevasses and bergschrund problems that made us turn back before summiting, - the N facing ice shield between A2 and Hilda is out of condition. It has so much rockfall and has lost so much ice that we avoided it this weekend. This is the worst, dirtiest and ugliest I have seen the Columbia Icefields area in 35 years of climbing there. Despite that, people are still climbing Athabasca via the North Face (now getting much harder than ever), the ramp route and the Silverhorn as conditions allow. These routes are still passable for skilled and properly equipped parties when conditions allow. Recent snow may be disguising crevasses up higher. On Sunday August 30 we returned to the North Glacier below Athabasca and climbed a five pitch ice route that goes up the lower glacier right of the normal ascent toward the Boundary / Athabasca col and just left of where an obvious rockfall hazard exists. Where we went the rockfall hazard was very, very low and we encountered no rockfall on our ascent at all. We left the parking lot at 4 AM and did the first two pitches primarily by headlamp. Temperature at the parking lot was a scorching 12 degrees. It cooled off just slightly as we approached but definitely one of the warmer evenings I can remember at the Icefields. The glacier is dry throughout on the way to the Boundary col with rock studded in the upper sections but access to the col was not problematic. We attempted A2 and had no problems on the initial glacier past the col. The early crevasses were obvious and the initial snow covered sections were still giving good support despite very warm temperatures. Higher on A2 we recognized that the normal approach on the climbers left was a total mess with active rockfall as we approached plus extensive crevasse / bergschrund issues. As the snow and ice melts back it has left a lot of loose rock sitting on ice and ready to roll. A new bergschrund has appeared higher up with loose boulders perched on ice above it. We opted to go farther right on the glacier than normal and were eventually stymied by spooky very thin bridges that we were unwilling to try to cross. Right where we decided to turn around a serac from up above decided to calve off and hastened our descent. For my money I would avoid A2 for the rest of the season until winter snow covers the rockfall issues and rebuilds the bridges. It would still be passable for a strong party willing to risk much more than the usual hazard and rockfall. Having said that, we were a strong well equipped party and still decided to turn back as we found the residual risk daunting on Sunday. Just for reference I typically climb A2 a couple of times every year and have done so for many years. This is the worst I have ever seen it. We retraced our tracks back to the Boundary Col where we summitted Boundary Peak and descended the scree descent. No water anywhere to be seen on the descent. The 5 pitch technical but straightforward ice climb that we did as a start for an ascent of Boundary is an excellent alternative to A2 if you are looking for something different to do at the Columbia Icefields. Cheers Cyril Shokoples MG Rescue Dynamics http://www.rescuedynamics.ca http://www.rescuedynamics.com xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx From mcr at informalex.org Sat Sep 5 09:01:56 2009 From: mcr at informalex.org (Public Mountain Conditions Report) Date: Sat, 05 Sep 2009 07:01:56 -0600 Subject: [MCR] David Thompson Country Fires Message-ID: For those who may be thinking of climbing anything between Saskatchewan Crossing in Banff Park and Whirlpool Point in David Thompson Country, beware that extensive controlled burning has radically altered the landscape here and some fires are still burning. This affects the access to Mt. Cline and Mt. Wilson as examples. In addition, the trees around the ice climbs "570", "SARS on Ice", "Gentlemen, Orders" and "Bloodline" have been burned and thus may affect the tree anchors for the ice climbs this winter. Giving the thin nature of the soil in this area I would also expect that trees will start falling over on some ledges and may pose a unique hazard in the coming years. Just thought you should know. Cyril Shokoples MG Rescue Dynamics http://www.rescuedynamics.ca http://www.rescuedynamics.com xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx From mcr at informalex.org Sun Sep 6 11:46:15 2009 From: mcr at informalex.org (Public Mountain Conditions Report) Date: Sun, 06 Sep 2009 09:46:15 -0600 Subject: [MCR] Southern Exposure Ghost Message-ID: I climbed Southern Exposure in the Ghost Yesterday. All the Bolts, which are home made hangers - are totally rusty! For such a classic climb would be good to get them replaced with the modern stainless steel. Not much of a confidence booster, especially where it is run out. However despite that it is a great route! Marco Delesalle Mountain Guide -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: