Just home from one of the Assistant Alpine Guide exams.
We spent the last 10 days between Rogers Pass (Mt. Rogers and Mt. Tupper) and the Lake Louise/ Bow Valley areas (Mount’s Fay, Little (via the Perren route), Castle, Cascade (Mothers Day), and Kid Goat. All this occurred as the nice summer weather decided to take a turn to the worse – what we call perfect exam weather!
In Rogers Pass (Aug.22-24) we found a mix of snow and ice with some open crevasses on the approach up the Swiss Glacier and hard frozen snow on the face of Rogers – the bergshrund was still easily crossed on the climbers right side – Tupper was in fine shape the next day and we replaced and removed some old anchor material on the descent (it was once again snow covered on my drive home today).
Our time in the Rockies (Aug.26-30) started with a sunny summer day (maybe the last there?) for our climbs on Castle which deteriorated later in the evening with the first of a series of systems. This storm of Aug.27th deposited @ 5cms. of snow down to the toe of the Fay glacier (@ 2800m.), which after a clear cold(-4.5 in Moraine Lake at 6 am) had a layer of 5mm. surface hoar (yes already!) over it. The snow on the lower glacier had drifted into a number of narrow (meaning leg breaking) crevasses making travel tricky up the center section with lots of probing.
The fair weather held for the day of the 28th and once again deteriorated that evening and deposited another 5-10cms(2900m.) of snow overnight with light westerly winds. The snow stopped by the am and we climbed the Roth Kallen and Central Ice Bulge - descending the Roth Kalen via v-threads rather than the West Ridge which was now snow covered. There had been several small loose snow avalanches off the ice faces overnight from the previous evening snowfall. The central Ice Bulge bergshrund is still reasonable to negotiate (though the leader had to plow through the sluff deposits) and the Roth Kallen required some aiding off of ice screws to surmount the overhanging upper wall. The ice faces ranged from firm neve to ice and there are still old cornices overhanging both routes.
The snowfall began again in the afternoon and by the time we left there had been another 10-15cms. of snow @ 2900 m. that tapered with elevation loss and it was pouring rain in the valey well into the evening adding I am sure to the previous snowfall figure.
Needless to say conditions are not great out there in the alpine with all this new snow and glacier travel will only be trickier – may be time for a trip to Skaha for some rock climbing!
Thanks to all the candidates for providing a safe and fun week in the mountains!
Cheers,
Scott Davis
ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide