My client and I flew to the Dome on July 20th, immediately apparent to my eye was that the face looked to be in June conditions -a uniform shield of snow with no runneling visible. We kicked a track up to the face and checked out the bergschrund crossing (up track preserved on our descent). We walked away from our Dome camp at 03:45 BC time on the 21st. A strong overnight freeze and crust allowed us to ascend the face, but under the 10cm crust lay 70 cm to 1 meter plus of damp snow, I knew we'd be having challenges with the face on the descent once the crust broke down. The ascent to the summit and return to the top of the Kain Face as per Tom's posting. The firm surface had gone to isothermal wet oatmeal especially were the snow was shallow over ice.
I rapped 30 meters down onto the Kain Face at 17:00 to check it out and it was sloppy and ripe. The little 1 cm surface slough that glided away from my feet matured to a roaring, wet cement, size 2 avalanche by the time it gushed over the bergshrund. We resigned ourselves to digging a snow cave and waiting until morning to descend, or seeing if the helicopter that was coming to pick us up the next morning could pick us up then. It could, and we flew from the top of the Kain Face at 18:30, packed up our camp and flew down to the road. The face looked dramatically different flying away, several more days of hot weather should see it in normal summer conditions -runnels of ice and ribs of snow.
Climbed the Silverhorn Route on Mt Athabasca yesterday, July 23rd. A week overnight freeze on the glacier helped (3 mm crust?). Good travel on the glacier, the route was damp with water running to within 100 meters of the top of the Silverhorn. Descended via the AA col which is getting boney, and bonier. Little snow cover left below the upper basin. A party had been up the Hourglass Route on the 22nd.
Happy trails,
Barry Blanchard
UIAGM/IFMGA Mountain Guide
Yamnuska Mountain Adventures
1 403 609 4615
cell 1 403 609 1321