Got chased away from Ice Nine yesterday by a size 1 slough that ran over Happy Days while my buddy was finishing the first pitch of Ice Nine. Several centimeters of overnight snow on the highway. A coldish -20 something morning with consistent light snow fall as we approached (less than 1 cm/hr). Calm air, no wind. The approach gully has deep debris from large avalanches. Blue ice chunks from ice collapses, of what I assumed was Happy Days, sitting on the surface. We observed a number of small sloughs cleaning off of the mountain before the size 1 roared over Happy Days and we ran away.
Looks like the second pitch of Ice Nine is probably the crux right now. The first pitch is fractured at the roof level, but has frozen over on the front side.
Happy trails,
Barry Blanchard
Mountain Guide
www.barryblanchard.ca
www.yamnuska.com
Fracture at the roof of pitch 1
Sloughing over Happy Days 10 minutes before the size 1.
