Bergschrund on Bonanza in late summer?

[peterclimb]

I'm looking to climb Bonanza but I'm concerned about the

snow bridge over the bergschrund on the Mary Green Glacier. With our warm summer I'm expecting this snow bridge to be gone.

 

Has anyone done this route in late summer? How difficult is it to get around the bergschrund?

 

Thanks for any help.

 

Peter

[Jim]

Did it in early August a couple of years ago, normal snow year. No problem with bergschrund. I didn't like the wet slabs leading to glacier, and there was some zig-zagging on lower glacier, but the rest was straight-forward. Enjoy the 900 ft of loose class 3-4.

[peterclimb]

Just returned from a successful trip to Bonanza. There are two delicate snow bridges near the top of the Mary Green Glacier that are still good. But since the village of Holden is being evacuated (my partner and I were the 14th and 15th people left) because of the Deep Harbor forest fire, the snow bridges may be gone by the time the village is re-opened.

 

It did appear that someone could traverse high on the right side of the glacier to by-pass the lower snowbridge, but you'd still have to deal with snow bridge on the higher bergschrund.

 

We camped at Holden Pass and had no problems accessing the glacier. The lower glacier up from Holden Lake looked pretty broken up. Beautiful area and great route if you don't mind downclimbing exposed 3rd/4th class.

 

We met 8 Mazamas who climbed the mountain Friday, as well as 5 MS guys who summited Saturday. If those guys are reading this, thanks for the info! Great route, and spectacular mountain.

[Moonbeam]

Glad you got out of there okay and that our whiskey-induced beta worked out for you. I ended up signing you in to the Hike Haus register since the Forest Service was trying to account for everyone. At one point, you two "experienced Seattle Climbers" were the only non-Holden employees left.

 

Since people like pictures, here are a few of the route on Aug. 14th 2004

[peterclimb]

Hey Moonbeam,

 

Thanks for the beta and for letting them know about us up there. We didn't know there was a Hiker Haus sign in until we walked back into the ghost town village Monday morning and a forest officer asked, "Are you the two hikers?"

 

If we had returned a day later, they might have just handed us a pulaski and a yellow firefighters shirt.

 

We just missed the bus for the fast boat but that gave us time to eat lunch (which was great!) and visit with the staff and learn more about what had happened while we were up on the mountain.

 

It was strange returning Monday to the sparse village with fire hoses running across the roads and draped all over the buildings and bridges. Quite a contrast to the madhouse Saturday when we arrived.