Spent the last week out of Abbotts Pass and the Columbia Icefields, There`s been a lot of great posts on these already, just adding a few more observations to the mix.
As Grant Statham mentioned in his post on Mount Lefroy was in great shape for us, we climbed it the same day he and Danielle did. We also took a look up Mount Victoria and found much better snow conditions than I would have expected. We climbed from the hut to a point on the ridge where the initial steepness lays back and where you actually begin to traverse more consistently to the north along the ridgetop. We turned back due to very strong winds. Without the wind though, what I could see of the ridge looked great – two good overnight freezes in a row made the travel on the snow fast and made me feel a lot better about moving through some of the steeper sections. Maybe not a good choice this week with the uber warm weather we’re getting but next time the overnight temps dip back below zero and things tighten up again I bet it would be good to go.
At the ice fields we climbed Athabasca via the AA Col, had good supportive travel above 2800m. up and down despite it being +9*C in the parking lot at 0130hrs. At the end of the day we also noted two huge point release/slough avalanches that came off the Silverhorn directly overhead of the ramp route. One of them came from the dead centre of the face where there didn’t appear to be any rocks, shallow spots, or any other of the usual features that might produce something like that – there was however a party on the route that day and I half wondered if it could have been triggered by them...? Not much for debris below and looked to be only the surface that released but maybe something to think about if you’re traveling in the terrain below, or choosing your line on the Silverhorn on an ascent.
Ciao fer now, and have fun out there!
Mike Trehearne
Assistant Alpine Guide
m_trehearne@hotmail.com