Hola amigos.
A new obs. from a few recent days of ice work.
Out at Haffner a few days ago and thought it might be worth noting some pretty big settlements and cracks on the ice between "The Flake Route" and "Shagadelic". The dagger hanging in front of the mixed line "Half a Gronk has got a crack that has opened up about 4in. or so, that may be partially healed but still looks pretty unstable, been giving that one a miss for a week or two now since it first appeared. While one of the other guides was climbing "The Flake Route", one tool placement near the top sent a shooting crack the full length of the dagger there as well, didn't open up or collapse at all but we could see the fracture went the full width of the ice - we felt that we might have been able to get a few laps on the route before the daytime warming really started to affect things, made us realize pretty quickly how much tension the ice was actually holding, even early in the day. Needless to say we pulled that rope pretty quickly and moved on.
Temperatures in the morning when we rolled into the parking lot were down around -13*C, and by mid day had warmed up to +2*C.
The Professor Falls was in good shape, easy WI4 probably. Completely dry except for the last pitch, and good hooks the whole way. 0*C in the parking lot at 0700hrs. and didn't get anything warmer than that while we were on the route. Snow was in and out all day along with light crosswinds from the west but really didn't start to come down until we were pulling the ropes on the last rappel.
Be safe and have fun out there!
Mike Trehearne
ACMG - Assistant Alpine Guide
Mobile +1.403.679.8080
ACMG - Assistant Alpine Guide
Mobile +1.403.679.8080