A visitor safety team consisting of Jordy Sheperd, Ruari Macfarlane and I climbed the N Ridge of Mt Athabasca on August 15th.
The route was in great shape, with dry rock all the way to the glaciated step where it joins the north face bypass. The Scottish gully was getting thin, with loose rock starting to show through the ice in several locations, ice screws were still easily placed though. We descended the ramp route, which was icy above the upper crevasse but still had enough snow to plunge an axe while following the steps across the traverse.
Of note, we witnessed a large boulder falling down the center of the tongue of the north Athabasca glacier on our approach to the Boundary/Athabasca col at 0615 AM.
We ran into another party making there way up the north face bypass, they reported that they had been forced to climb the scree up the face after a couple of close calls with rockfall on the ice.
The smoke rolled in throughout the morning, we were just above it at 3400m by midday.

Jonas Hoke
Visitor Safety Technician