Turned around on the glacier below the North Face of Mt Stanley yesterday morning (Aug 20). Poor to no freeze overnight, the mountain was a lively place with rockfalls and running water. We thought that we'd attempt the 'Waterman' Coulior (sits between the Y Coulior and the North Face in "Selected Alpine Climbs") and used the glacier tongue approach described in that book (I hadn't been there since 1993). We bivied beside the ice tongue on the night of Aug 19th, a descending party told us that the Waterman didn't look good and that the North Face was the only practical route at present. True to their words the Y Coulior looks horrible, untenable right now, may be a route of the 'past'. We didn't go far enough to see into the Waterman, but the bergshrund looks undoable right now -a gaping maw capped by a 7 meter snow overhang.
For the North Face, I have had success there on my last 4 climbs of it by approaching on the trail that cuts back over the top of the "Nemesis" ice climb, had I known we would end up going for the North Face I would have approached, and bivied, via that route.
Happy trails,
Barry Blanchard
UIAGM/IFMGA Mountain Guide
Yamnuska Mountain Adventures
1 403 609 4615
cell 1 403 609 1321