jmckay

There was a time when Washinton and Jackson and their crew were considered terrorists. Think beny and the boys are not being to unreasonable, all you need do is pull out of the middle east. Sounds simple to me.

West Coast Mountain Conditions Summary for Aug 10, 2006 The hot dry summer has been recently interrupted by marginally cooler temps and wet weather. All the precip has been falling as rain below 3000m. Most guides are now finding seasonal snow has pretty much disappeared, which means that you will most likely encounter ice and harder firn snow on snow faces and glaciers - more like September conditions than August. Exactly how hard? - depends on the overnight temps and cloud cover. It seems that most snow slopes of any steepness now require crampons in the AM. Afternoon descents on softer snow require good judgement, however hidden ice runnels and ice patches just underneath the snow can surprise descenders without crampons, and test your self arrest skills in a hurry. Due to glacial melting, rockfall hazard is becoming a problem. Rocks that have been carefully held in place by glaciers for centuries are now being exposed to the effects of gravity. And the effects can be surprising. Although we may not be in the same league as the Alps in Europe (where large sections of mountain are calving off on the Eiger - see msn.com), refrigerators and TV sets have been seen tumbling down regularly in some areas - couliors, gullys, and some snow faces. Keep a eye out for fresh evidence, which usually indicates the hazard areas, and avoid travel in these areas while the heat of summer is here. Glacier snowbridges are sagging and collapsing everywhere with afternoon warming. Keep in mind...The uptrack you were following from the party 2 or 3 days ago might not be the best one for today. This is especially true in high traffic areas such as Mt. Baker where plodding parties with their heads down mindlessly follow an old track over a sagging snowbridge, rather than use their own good mountain sense, and forge a new trail which avoids the sag. Pretty much all alpine rock routes are long since free of snow on the South Coast, however getting on to some routes is becoming very challenging due to glacier melt back and impassable schrunds. This is especially true in the Tantalus Range - N side of Alpha, and routes on Tantalus. Be prepared for some intricate schrund crossings followed by challenging rock climbing on slippery glacier polished granite (with loose rock), just to access the start of a route! Squamish Chief Dihedral rock routes are now all entirely open, with young Peregrine Falcons having mostly fled their nests (thus facilitating BC Parks to open the corners). Looks like a hot and dry weekend coming up. Keep your head up, and the sharp points down. Brian Gould ACMG/IFMGA Mountain Guide

Ski touring on the wapta Wapta icefields aug 6-10. No freezes throughout period. Up to 20cm recent storm snow (before 6th) above 9300’ (2800m) isothermal and settling/ melting fast. North Rhonda, boot top penetration on upper glacier but good condition on upper ridge. Mt Olive good condition with crampons necessary on ridge. Glacier travel less than ideal with much more bare ice travel than normal, and isothermal snow where snow exists, causing poor crevasse bridging. Intense system moving into region on morning of 10, possible new snow at higher elevations. See attached photos Photo 1- Rhonda North aug 7 Photo 2- view south across wapta from Rhonda north towards st nick/ olive aug 7 Photo 3- view north from mt olive aug 9 Have fun!! Jeff Jeff Honig Mountain Guide Alpine Addictions Box 1106 Revelstoke BC V0E2S0 (250)837-2215 (home) (240)837-1333 (cell) jeff@alpineaddictions.com

Athabasca betaIt can be a great time to do Athabasca. Downside is that you walk in the dark for a couple extra hours but you can pick up that scenery on the way down. Possible snow but not likely. Weather historicaly good.

Assiniboine B eta Grant C and I climbed Lunette and Assiniboine via their SW faces yesterday, Aug 7. The peaks are pretty much bone dry with the exception of a large snowpatch on Assiniboine which may be used to bypass some rubbly climbing (watch for rockfall in the afternoon), and on the summit ridge of Assiniboine. The access and approach information in Corbett's 11'ers book is good. I found it hard to follow the description for the climbing but to be fair, it is difficult to describe a route through choss like there is to be found on this side of Assiniboine. There are lots of cairns and flagging tape to help out with the routefinding though. I can't say that I can recommend these routes. There is a lot of gravel up there. Mark Klassen Mountain Guide _______________________________________________ These observations and opinions are those of the person who submitted them. The ACMG and its members take no responsibility for errors, omissions, or lapses in continuity. Conditions differ greatly over time and space due to the variable nature of mountain weather and terrain. Application of this information provides no guarantee of increased safety. Do not use the Mountain Conditions Report as the sole factor in planning trips or making decisions in the field. Please check out http://acmg.ca/mcr for more information.

August 6 Climbed SE face of Mt. Bryce via south couloir from the reg. Bivi in the moraines. With a midnight start had excellent conditions (excellent freeze) right to the summit of Bryce. The temperature at 0530 a.m (on the summit) was about –5 with a light wind from the west. A beautiful sun rise! When we arrived at the Bivi site on the 5 of August, there was two groups who have left for the summit at 0800 A.m, they got back at 1600 hrs with there tail between there legs because of the warm temperatures. Judging by the amount of debris and extremely deep runnels in the south Couloir, I would say that they got away LUCKY! Be safe out there! Marco Delesalle ACMG Mountain Guide

Victoria Beta Hello, Climbed the Se ridge of Victoria from the Abbot hut on August 7th. It was a beautiful day with warm temperatures, a light west wind and good company. The route is in great shape right now with alot of dry rock. We were able to put the crampons on at the first snow crossing, and kept them on for the rest of the route, to safely deal with icy patches. On the West Face descent, there is a great rappel/lower station about 60meters down from the ridge, it is highlighted by a red cordlette on a cairn. Right now 60 meters from the station gets you onto the snow/ice, this may change with drying conditions. The bergshrund crossing seems best at the far descender's right where it can be avoided, it is quite deep and serious in places. Huber ledges trail is quite well marked, and if followed properly leads to a station with a 25meter rappel. Don't forget to check the integrity of the slings on these mountain stations and they are regulary chewed through! Enjoy the Rockies classics! Andrew Langsford ACMG Assistant Alpine/Ski Guide

http://web.mac.com/mountainguide.com/iWeb/Selkirks/Sir%20Donald%20Photos.html Sir Donald Beta Enjoyed a beautiful day on the NW ridge of Sir Donald yesterday. The route is in good condition, with only a little bit of last week’s snow and verglass lingering on the summit block. Contrary to local ‘word on the street’, the ‘west face bypass’ descent option is in great shape and currently does not require either and ice axe or crampons. Definitely a time saver on descent when conditions are dry. The bolted descent route is set up well, but definitely requires a 50m rope. Several people have recently chosen to climb with a shorter rope, hoping to scramble the difference between stations. Not a good option! Better to carry the extra 10-15m of rope on the way up than to come up short on the way down. Be careful in the dihedral portion of the rap line if there are parties above you, as the potential for climber triggered rock fall could definitely be an issue. Cheers, Paul Norrie ACMG Mountain Guide

I felt it worth mentioning two BIG rockfall events I saw in the Rockies this week. The first was July 30th around 2500m on an east aspect out of a limestone face between Mts. Schaeffer and Biddle and was easily the biggest I have ever seen. It really looked like a big serac fall. I will take a wild guess and say it started as a 150 cubic meter chunk. Lots of refrigerator sized pieces flying far out of the dust cloud. Ouch! The second was a huge volley off the NW face of Ringrose on August 5th- I would guess over 50 big blocks hit the glacier HARD. It looked like a quartzite event but we couldn't see where it started. With the heat still on, there will be more to come from all over the ranges before things cool down and get frozen in place again. Yipes! Larry Stanier Mountain Guide

Climbed Aberdeen today Saturday Aug 5. Temperatures were cold with 2 degrees in the Lake Louise campground @ 3am, -1 at the toe of the glacier @ 630am and 6 degrees @ the summit @ 1130am. The lower glacier was in good shape but the upper slope above the bergshrund was rock hard ice with a 4 cm ice sheild over top that smashed away to get good screws underneath in the old black ice. There was 4 cm of new snow above 2700 meters that was bonded well to the old surface but quick to ball up crampons when exposed to the sun. We decided to descend down into Paradise valley as the rock fall was quite active with any sun exposure on the glacier. take care Andrew Langsford Asst Alpine/ski guide

Hi Everyone I just spent a week in the O’hara area with an ACC crew July 29- Aug 5th. Snowed above 2400 meters every day except today. -3 at the Abbott this morning. MT Victoria has 5-10 cm’s of new snow but still travels well with crampons on all day. MT Lefroy is in good shape for the moment with abalokov’s at 60meter intervals for the upper 6 pitches of the main right line. The route up MT Odaray has changed in the past few years and it is possible to skirt under the glacier until you can easily climb a short (15m) ice pitch and then head to the col between the main summit and “little Odaray” to the west. Jim G _______________________________________________ These observations and opinions are those of the person who submitted them. The ACMG and its members take no responsibility for errors, omissions, or lapses in continuity. Conditions differ greatly over time and space due to the variable nature of mountain weather and terrain. Application of this information provides no guarantee of increased safety. Do not use the Mountain Conditions Report as the sole factor in planning trips or making decisions in the field. Please check out http://acmg.ca/mcr for more information. MOUNT VICTORIA BETA PAGE

Tom H and I climbed the South Face of Bryce on Thursday Aug 3, summitting the Main and Central peaks. Conditions were good, with 5-10 cm of recent storm snow frozen atop the old surfaces making for good cramponing in the early morning. These old surfaces varied from good firn snow to rock embedded ice in the lower couloir. On the south face of the Main Summit block it was the storm snow atop firn the entire way. On the Central Peak the west ridge was slow going with several cm of recent snow on the rocks making travel slippery. It took over 2 hours to climb this ridge, more than twice the length of time it normally does. Wherever it was snow travel though the going was quite fast. We were lucky with the weather, a clear night gave a good freeze and cloud moving in later in the day kept things cool for the descent (although the footing was not nearly as secure for our descent due to some warming having occurred). There is a lot of fresh snow in the couloir and the cliffs above it, when it warms up it will be a war zone in there with rockfall and avalanches likely. If you go, have a plan for staying out of the couloir in the afternoon. You could either put in a high camp on the glacial plateau and descend early in the morning after your summit climbs, or wait until evening and descend after it cools in the couloir. Also, the s face of the summit block is prone to rapid heating. The east ridge of the main peak is another option but it is more problematic to climb with the knife edge snow arete near the top. Overnight Aug 3 and the morning of Aug 4 the weather turned very bad again, with major rain and snow events in this area. The mountains were white down to 2500m. I would say the NE Ridge is out for the time being, the S Face could still be good if temperatures are cold. This snow seemed very spotty on the drive home, with varying amounts noticed in different areas, even on adjacent mountains. Mark Klassen Mountain Guide _______________________________________________ These observations and opinions are those of the person who submitted them. The ACMG and its members take no responsibility for errors, omissions, or lapses in continuity. Conditions differ greatly over time and space due to the variable nature of mountain weather and terrain. Application of this information provides no guarantee of increased safety. Do not use the Mountain Conditions Report as the sole factor in planning trips or making decisions in the field. Please check out http://acmg.ca/mcr for more information.

It has been a warm dry summer so far. Glaciers receeding fast and much rockfall from any snow/ice faces which have rock on them from low elevation to high elevation ones i.e: Aig Ronde, N Face Eiger, etc. The recent widespread NW Low affecting all central and pre Alps regions has cooled temps significantly and brought 20-40cm a fresh moist snow. Isotherme or freezing level dropped to 2500M in most alpine centers. Some loading has been observed. This puts most rock ridges/spires out of condition for a few days and the snow will melt off fast in the first sunny days. Expect rockfall during this melt. Conditions: Chamonix Region: Generally very good conditions. All spires and rock faces good. Beware of afternoon build up and thunder. Caution on known melting perma-frost objectives: Dru, North Faces of higher Argentiere area. Mt. Blanc in excellent shape with double track making passing easy on narrow ridge. Cosmic approach now better due to a large serac fall and new trail. Gouter route good except for continuous rockfall during the short exposure accross the gully leading to the Gouter ridge. Expect heavy traffic! Upper Dome du Gouter crevace bridges getting weaker. Albert 1st hut area in excellent condition for warm up/teaching climbs. Zermatt Region: Matterhorn and Zenitrothorn rock routes out of condition for a few days but will be back in perfect shape soon. Matterhorn is quite good this season with crampons needed only in the upper 1/4 of the route. Beware of the Zermatt guides pushing and shoving, jockeying for position, it is better to just let them pass you, they think they own the mountain! Bernese Oberland Grindelwald: Eiger: North and West faces in very poor conditions. Mittellegi ridge in excellent condition. This season this ridge to the top of the Eiger is free of any snow. Descent is via the connecter ridge to the Monche and then Jungfrau Joch train station. Expect the descent to be longer and a bit harder than the ridge! Hut to summit 3-4 hours, down 3-5 hours. From Eismeer station take last exit door and walk on to glacier. Rapell anchor missing for gully descent to approach Mittellegi hut. Saas Fee: Heavier snow accumulation here. Rock ridges and rock faces out of condition for a few days. Most mountains are in excellent condition. Weissmeiss from Hoosass hut is nor reccomended. Saw fresh serac fall had swept the track. Also a new 25 meter steeper ice wall has formed higher up allready causing casualties. Mory Hut area and glacier in excellent shape for training/teaching climbs. Aosta: Grand Paradisio ridge from Vitorio Emanuel and Chabod route good but not normal route as it is icy with rockfall. Do not hesitate to contact me for specific info, Happy trail, Eric Eric Dumerac/ Rocky Mountain Vertical ACMG Aspirant mountain guide, CAA Level II, CSIA Level II ski instructor at your service France: +33 (0) 6 78 15 45 23 Canada: 403-609-1564

Aug 1-3 in the Little Yoho (Stanley Mitchell) area. A total of about 5 cm of recent snow has made travel on the ice pleasant. Cloudy conditions with frequent brief thundershowers persisted during our visit. Overnight freezes and excellent travel & bridging on the glaciers. We climbed Mt McArthur from the north, which (briefly) requires crampons on ice to 50 degrees if you wish to avoid the heinous rock. If you get it quick we chopped 40 deep steps for the climbing pleasure of the army cadets! The glacier below the Presidents appears to be in good condition with good steps in the new snow. Regards, Tom Wolfe _______________________________________________ These observations and opinions are those of the person who submitted them. The ACMG and its members take no responsibility for errors, omissions, or lapses in continuity. Conditions differ greatly over time and space due to the variable nature of mountain weather and terrain. Application of this information provides no guarantee of increased safety. Do not use the Mountain Conditions Report as the sole factor in planning trips or making decisions in the field. Please check out http://acmg.ca/mcr for more information.

Mountain conditions report for the coast mountains as of August 3/06. Conditions on the coast right now are very good. Cooler temperatures have made for better overnight freezes and generally better travel on the glaciers. A good amount of the winter snow still remains on glaciers above 7500ft. Above this elevation most crevasses still have a fair bit of snow bridging them, but sags are starting to show. Below this point ice and crevasses have begun to show up more. The toes of many glacier are showing the rapid recession from the past few years and there are many places with very loose rocks and new icefalls. Cation should be taken in these newly exposed areas. Alpine rock routes are in excellent condition. The forecast is for continued sun and slightly cooler temperatures than the past few weeks, so get out there. Craig McGee Mountain guide __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ These observations and opinions are those of the person who submitted them. The ACMG and its members take no responsibility for errors, omissions, or lapses in continuity. Conditions differ greatly over time and space due to the variable nature of mountain weather and terrain. Application of this information provides no guarantee of increased safety. Do not use the Mountain Conditions Report as the sole factor in planning trips or making decisions in the field. Please check out http://acmg.ca/mcr for more information.

Spent August 1st-3rd in the Bugaboos. Temperature were gradually getting warmer over the last couple days and the recent snowfall was slowly melting off. Routes on Bugaboo, Snowpatch and the Crescent area are all dry and good climbing though there was still a little snow in the chimneys on the NE ridge of Bugaboo yesterday. Bring your long johns if you are not in the sun! Some snow still remains on the N aspects of Pigeon Spire but the W ridge is in good shape. N side of the Howsers was still snowy Bugaboo-Snowpatch Col is still mostly snow travel with just a few short sections getting icy. The bergshrund is still easy to pass with careful travel. Good freezes overnight made crampons a necessity on any steep snow. We watched a lot of people travel across the glaciers to Pigeon Spire unroped over the last few days and then yesterday we saw one person fall into a crevasse. The crevasse had no indications of having a weak snow bridge from the our vantage point and was not far from the main trail. Fortunately they were roped up and the climber was back on the surface in a few moments. I think the take home message was to rope up for any of the glacier travel in the Bugaboos whether a trail exists or not. Have a great trip! Conrad Janzen ACMG Ski & Asst. Alpine Guide -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How low will we go? Check out Yahoo! Messenger’s low PC-to-Phone call rates. _______________________________________________ These observations and opinions are those of the person who submitted them. The ACMG and its members take no responsibility for errors, omissions, or lapses in continuity. Conditions differ greatly over time and space due to the variable nature of mountain weather and terrain. Application of this information provides no guarantee of increased safety. Do not use the Mountain Conditions Report as the sole factor in planning trips or making decisions in the field. Please check out http://acmg.ca/mcr for more information

Mountain Conditions Summary for the Rockies and Columbia Mountain issued August 3rd, 2006. Winter came to visit in the alpine this week. Reports vary from different regions but, generally 5 to 20 cms. of snow seems to have fallen above 3000m. The snow is sticking well to ice, neve and, unfortunately, to some rock faces. Nil avalanches reported but there is definitely enough snow and wind around to create slabs in some features. Alpine ice faces have mostly benefited from the snow and there could be some good climbing conditions this weekend on faces such as Fay and Lefroy. Again, watch for loaded pockets of fresh snow. Alpine rock routes and ridges are in really variable condition for now. Some routes are plastered and other have dried off already. Glacier travel conditions have taken a slight turn for the worse. The new snow has not settled at all as of Thursday pm. Therefore, crevasses are in some places covered with new snow that has not yet sagged but has no strength to carry a person. Expect to stick a leg in a crevasse and maybe more. It is raining and hailing here at Lake OHara at 7pm on Thursday and there is more precipitation forecast for Friday. Expect conditions to change again before the weekend. There is talk of a sunny weekend so at least get out and enjoy the view of these snowy hills. Larry Stanier Mountain Guide _______________________________________________ These observations and opinions are those of the person who submitted them. The ACMG and its members take no responsibility for errors, omissions, or lapses in continuity. Conditions differ greatly over time and space due to the variable nature of mountain weather and terrain. Application of this information provides no guarantee of increased safety. Do not use the Mountain Conditions Report as the sole factor in planning trips or making decisions in the field. Please check out http://acmg.ca/mcr for more information.

Assiniboine beta Around Mt. Assiniboine today. Last night's precip event had little effect there. The normal route appears to be in good shape up to the red band but temperatures there were cold. The route appeared verglassed above the red band. Temperatures at the summit were -5 at 09:30 this morning. 3 pictures included showing the normal route, the red band and the summit. It looks like more precip is on the way for Friday but unless a lot of snow falls, it should only take a few warm days for it to be in good shape again. Marc Ledwidge Mountain guide This is a photo From the 2nd of aug 2006 Summit ridge climbing is over at this point The seldom seen or climbed SW aspect The low end 5th class climbing below the red band. Shots taken from a heli

You do have to pay the hHauscran park fee good for a month. $60 US The rest of it is so hard to figure out. From everyone that I spoke to they do not think that the poorly thought out legislation willnot go through by next climbingg season. My suggestion is that you get hold og the Peruvian guides association and ask them in advance. I can pass on a couple email adresses to a few guides if you can not get hold of teh association. In short I have been told to expect no change by next season but that is not written in stone. No answer is a answer...Less is more...no plan is a plan I am guiding down there next season so I am curious myself. hard to budget a trip the way things are now. Joe

Climbed Huber today after a blustery high bivy on the Huber Ledges. Freeze overnight, excellent snow conditions on the route and on the glacier, not too many crevasses yet. Only a few cm of fresh snow from the recent weather and it was not an issue on this route but lots of snow on all the rock routes, they are out of condition for the time being. The gully from Huber Glacier to Victoria is partially melted out but probably still passable. Several parties apparently were turned back from Victoria yesterday due to poor weather and snowy conditions. Mark Klassen Mountain Guide

Hi All, Snowed down to about 2500m in the Bugs on the 30th and stayed cold yesterday. Only about 5-10cm fell on the east side of the range and there are reports of up to 20cm in the East Creek Basin. It is a nicer day out this morning but still quite cool... Cheers, Marc Piché

Niblock or Mt whyte I think you may find some good scrambling in the louise group but once again it is condition dependent. certianly steep technical climbs will depend on what the latter part of the season is like. A couple guys went out that time of year last year and didn't come back. one on Assiniboine the other on Temple

Athabasca Beta page More then likely out of shape. There will be permant snow and possible avalanche hazard. It has been done before but not often.

Assiniboine Beta page

Hello, We climbed the East Ridge of Edith Cavell on Tuesday July 25th. It was in quite good shape, mainly dry on the ridge with the usual snow crossings, some of which were safely bypassed on rock. There was a couple sections of ice on the upper ridge which may require an axe and crampons. The summit ridge had some recent tracks quite high on the cornice (yikes!), we used crampons and travelled lower down. Fresh socks and running shoes make the final trail home a little nicer. Enjoy your days, Andrew Langsford Asst. Alpine/Ski Guide