Hermit Meadows - Rogers Pass:

August 27-29th were spent at the Hermit meadows Bivy sight in the rogers pass zone. During our stay there we experienced generally stable weather conditions favourable for our objectives. Our ascents of Mt. Tupper and Mt Rodgers were via the West Ridge and 1896 route, respectively. Approach routes were somewhat obscure and ill defined but once on the ridges we had dry rock and easy travel. These route were easily accessed without the need for glacier or snow travel, especially on the 1896 route where we stuck to the ridge the entire way.

August 30th - EEOR

We started early to avoid afternoon thundershowers and climbed Generosity and the North Ridge. Approaches and descent routes were very straight forward and the rock was dry. The North Ridge route is cleaning up nicely with more frequent travel but rockfall is still a hazard. All fixed anchors were in good condition.

August 31 - September 1 - Icefields

Unstable weather patterns and variable showers limited our potential objectives and increased our concern for hazards. We climbed A2 via the Athabasca glacier to avoid to rockfall hazard going up the boundary glacier. Travel was primarily on blue ice with the fern line being around 2800 meters. Rock on the ridge of A2 was dry. The final approach to the A2 - Athabasca Col required careful route finding through large crevasses. Care should be taken as bridges will continue to deteriorate.

September 2 - 4 - Lake Louise/Bow Valley

We climbed to the Neil Colgan hut via the Perren Route and Schiesser Ledges with a summit of Bowlen Peak. Both routes were free of snow. Route finding and crevasse navigation on glaciers was easily managed. Of note, a large piece of the double bergschrund to access the west ridge of Fay calved off onto the Fay Glacier.

Final day in the Bow Valley and K Country had high pressure and dry rock. We climbed ESE Ridge of Lady MacDonald and Buttress #4 on Mt. Buller. Both routes were in fine condition.

Submitted by Mike Adolph on behalf of the instructors and candidates of the AAGE #2