durocher

Three of us were in the Tantalus two weeks ago. The descent from Alpha seems easiest if after reaching the snow (below the fixed rope you mention) you head back west towards the Serratus-Alpha col and then descend southwest on large talus back to the Russian Army Camp. From there, a large cairn marks the start of the well-established trail back to Lambda Lake and Lake Lovely Water that avoids any bushwhacking. Of course, we only knew this because we went up the West Ridge of Alpha; we likely would have had similar route-finding issues on descent had we gone up and over the East Ridge. On the return we came from the Ionia-Serratus col and descended the northwestern gully, as described in Fairley. If interested, here's a plot of our tracks indicating the route from Lambda Lake to the East Ridge. The black dots are actual gps tracks (not the purple ones). tracks