Climbed A2 yesterday with two rope teams from the ACC Calgary Section. Had a
poor freeze overnight with overcast and warm conditions. Went up via
Boundary Glacier. No recent tracks on this side except some tracks from
folks who climbed the ice apron and descended without summitting. A party
had summitted A2 the day before via the North Glacier on Athabasca.
Snow on the lower glacier had not set up at all. At about 2500m, just past
the bottleneck on the glacier on climbers right, we encountered a surface
crust which eventually became somewhat supportive unless you were over
100kg. The crust became thicker (5cm) and more supportive with elevation. We
were blessed with cold and windy conditions with about 1 - 2cm of new snow
falling during the day. If the sun had come out the snow conditions would
have been ugly.
There was no evidence of fresh windslabs on any of the terrain we were
travelling on but there is still a tonne of snow hanging in the gullies on
the NE slopes of Athabasca. If you are coming over from the North Glacier
side and traversing under these slopes the potential for avalanches with
daytime heating and solar radiation is still VERY real.
Coverage on the crevasses was generally good but the crust had already
started to break done by 10:30AM despite the thick cloud, snow and cold
wind. The UV was still making its presence known. We had some post holing on
the way down but it was manageable and I would have to say we got lucky with
the cold weather as the going was occasionally tedious but never brutal.
With a good freeze it would be quite good.
On the way down we had a couple of folks put a leg in a couple of crevasses
at about 2500 - 2600m. The crevasse situation is still readily manageable
with diligence and careful routefinding.
The ice Apron between A2 / A3 is still predominantly snow covered but in the
past two days a substantial amount of snow has melted off exposing two
growing patches of ice.
We spent the day at Parkers ridge on Saturday (the day before) where there
is still lots of snow for skills practice as noted by others in earlier
posts. Of note was a large group of 20 - 30 from a Calgary ski club who
reported quite reasonable ski conditions on the upper slopes with better
skiing on Friday than Saturday. Lack of overnight freeze made for sloppier
ski conditions on Saturday.
If you are going to head out skiing, best do it soon as the forecast for
next week is for temperatures to SOAR into the high 20s or even 30 degrees.
The sudden rise in temperatures should make for some exciting avalanche and
rockfall activity given all of the snow still sitting around.
Driving back through Jasper I noted that the climbs in the Fryatt Valley
plus Peveril Peak and Mt Edith Cavell were still holding lots of snow. The
Cavell road is still closed until the end of July.
Eastern slopes rock climbs like Colin, Meisner's, CR5A, Perdrix, Bedson,
Ashlar's were all bare and dry with no new snow evident.
Stay Cool
Cyril Shokoples MG
http://www.rescuedynamics.ca
http://www.rescuedynamics.com
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