Sunday -- Athabasca via AA Col - about 10 cm new snow with strong SW winds
throughout the day. This brings the total storm snow to 12-15 cm since
Friday. Good travel. The schrund is easily crossed but still thinly
bridged, and we belayed over it going up and down (good ice screws with a
little digging). Storm snow was bonding well to the old surface -- the
moist snow Jordy described in his last post is now a frozen/facetted
breakable temperature crust under the storm snow that made for good steps
approaching the col and good, secure plunge stepping descending.
Windloading and some cracking in the storm snow at ridgetops. Lots of
sluffing could be heard throughout the day from Andromeda's gullies. +5 C
at the trailhead at 5:45am, freezing level at about 2800m, cooling off
towards evening. Strong downflow winds noted as we descended.
Monday -- Wilcox Pk - Cold, clear night, -2C at the campground at 5am and
a dusting of new snow to valley bottom. This made for slippery hiking this
morning. Things melted fairly quickly when the sun finally came out
mid-morning and by the early afternoon the rock was mostly dry. Still
moderate to strong SW winds as well as some sluffing off of Snowdome and
Andromeda's N faces. Cold with a mix of sun and cloud throughout the day.
3C at the campground at 2pm but felt warm in sheltered areas in the sun.
Regards,
Tom Wolfe
ACMG AAG/ASG
_______________________________________________
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