Climbed the West ridge on Fay via the Perren Route on the 29 & 30th. There were significant patches of verglas on the lower Perren where the sun doesn’t reach. Ice smears were forming and falling off above and to the right of the chains on the Perren. Travel on the Fay glacier was excellent with a very supportive rime crust from the 9/27 precipitation event. Crevasses seemed well bridged. The west ridge had significant covering of Styrofoam snow on it which really did not hamper travel much and glued the rubble in nicely; we used crampons all the way. The Fay ice routes all looked good as did the gulleys on the E face of Mt Little. There was significant old avalanche debris up to size 2.5 from almost every major gulley feature on Fay and Little and I saw no evidence of snow instabilities in the immediate area. Viewed from afar the long ice gulley on Ringrose (Condgon/McNab) looked to be “in”.
James Blench
James Blench
www.jamesblench.ca
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