We climbed the West Ridge of Tupper and the NW ridge of Sir Donald this week. Conditions changed dramatically over a few days. We backed off plans to climb Sir Donald due to new snow and verglas on Aug 9/10, but summited a few days later after rain and sun melted much of it back.

The west ridge of Tupper was snow-free and dried quickly after overnight rain on Aug 10. Patches of snow above the Hermit meadows can be avoided. We were repeatedly warned about a grizzly bear hanging around camp, but we never spotted it.

On Sir Donald, there is a short but steep patch of snow on the approach to the Sir Donald-Uto col, where you may need an ice axe and crampons given a solid freeze. Otherwise, the route was snow-free until above the summit pyramid. Snow made the final 100 m slippery, requiring extra care.

We descended the West Face bypass (having carried ice axe and crampons) and found more slippery recent snow on rock. The larger, semi-permanent snow patches were variably punchy, thin and occasionally frozen. Overall, this descent option took a lot of caution to manage safely and wasn't really that much fun.

Both climbs were cold for the time of year and I was very glad of my down jacket and gloves.