PaulB

Our original plan was to descend the SE Face, but we didn't think we had enough daylight left to rappel the notch, climb back up, go over the summit, find the top of the SE face (neither of us have climbed it) and go down it. One rap (slung block) gets you from the col on the NW ridge into the gully. The gully is loose and dirty, but easy. When snow filled it would be even easier, and faster. I believe this gully is described in Fairley's guide as the standard descent off Joffre. From turning around at the notch, it took 4 hours to get back to the hut.

It was a quiet weekend in Cerise Creek. We had the hut to ourselves on Saturday night. Despite the forecast, and having poured rain all night, Sunday turned out to be great. The NE Glacier route on Joffre is in fine shape. Mostly snow, with bare ice on the lower part of the "snow" spur. Getting around a crevasse high on the spur and crossing the 'schrund were the cruxes. We didn't go to the summit, but descended from the NW Ridge to the Matier Glacier, crossed to the col and back down to the hut. On the approach we had a good look at the NE Face couloirs; Joffre looks like its still in good shape, but the Central & Twisting look to be more rock than snow or ice.

Hey Folks, The stump on the Williamson Lake road has been pushed to one side. Anything narrower than a Hummer should be able to get past it to the parking area. If you happen to have a Hummer, finish pushing the stump off the road!

GU is not available in Canada because it has not been approved for sale by Health Canada. This is what their product support dept (known as the GU-RU) told me a year or so ago when I asked who their Canadian distributors were. This doesn't mean there are any problems with GU, only that they haven't bothered to go through the approval process. However, I have seen GU in at least one athletic store in North Vancouver that also has a business in the US, and were bringing it across through some loophole or another. I've never tried GU, but PowerGel does the trick for me. More convenient than energy bars, and tastier too. The chocolate flavour was a big disappointment though. Paul.

Thanks for the feedback. I've been rock and ice climbing for nearly 10 years (and have never paid for climbing instruction before), but am relatively new to the alpine arena. What I've been looking for is a course where I can pick up the tricks/techniques for efficient and safe alpine climbing. CWMS has a 5 day "Advanced Mountaineering" course that sounds like it would be a good way to get a lot of mileage in the company of a guide who can give advice along the way as opposed to making all the decisions for me. I just wanted to get a feel for how their courses have been received. Seems like a mixed bag so far.

Has anyone taken any courses or done any trips with Canada West Mountain School? If so, do you have any comments or criticisms? Was it good value for the $$? Thanks. Paul.