Just finished a great ski traverse from Mt Clemenceau to the Columbia Icefields with Simon Robbins and a fun group from Edmonton and Winnipeg . We were able to climb Mt Clemenceau, Chaba Peak and Mt Columbia along the way and enjoyed great weather and travel conditions for most of the trip.
We climbed Mt Clemenceau along with Larry's and Mark's group for a very social outing on a remote peak. Then returned to camp to discover that the ravens had enjoyed disassembling our tent fly for no obvious reason. Thanks to all who contributed the extra duct tape!
At the Chaba-Wales Col, we used the lower/rappel 200m N of the "Devils Horns" rappels. This allowed us to keep our skis on for all but one 3m step over the ridge and is a much simpler site to manage than the other option. A 50m rope is adequate for the last person to rappel with.
Coverage was good for the high route out of the Bush River onto the Columbia Icefields on the 16th, however the snow below 2300m was rapidly going isothermal and we moved quickly to get out of steep terrain early in the day.
Mt Columbia was in great shape on the 17th with good step kicking up and down the East Face. Steel crampons worked best as there are several areas with only 20cm of snow over ice and 15m of almost bare ice below the summit.
0°C at 3000m on the 18th meant moist snow on our descent out the Athabasca Glacier. The upper ramp is still in good shape but the crossing under the seracs has changed a lot over the last week. There are several sagging bridges and a couple of open crevasses to negotiate directly below the seracs. A better freeze would certainly be preferred for travelling this route. Snow travel all the way to the toe of the Athabasca Glacier.
Below 2800m we saw lots of wet snow avalanches over the last couple days and limited crust recovery since Saturday. Felt like summer was arriving quickly.
ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide