We just got back from an amazing past week (July 11-18th) alpine climbing from a helicopter accessed basecamp in the Gold Range (Southern Monashee’s), guiding for Galena Mountain Guides annual Backcountry Mountaineering Camp. We climbed Mt Odin, Mt Hugin, Mt Munin, Frigg Towers (East and West) and Mjollnir Tower, most by a couple of different routes.

Weather:
We had hot and sunny weather all week, with a few towering cumulus clouds the past couple of days and some lightning Friday night (but no rain).

Snow conditions:
Snow has been melting fast all week with more ice showing every day. The sun cups are 20-40cm high in most areas, along with good step kicking never more than ankle deep.

Crevasses:
A few crevasses are opening up along with bergschrunds and moats, but not many sags observed.

Rock conditions:
All ridges are dry along with most rock faces. There are a few snow patches lingering in steep north facing gullies that are spitting rocks regularly.

Smoke:
The smoke got thicker as the week progressed, but started to get pushed away the past couple of days with changing weather. It was never thick enough to affect our plans, just limit our visibility. It seemed like we were mostly above the smoke looking down on it.

Enjoy the sunny weather and hopefully we get some rain soon!

Alex Geary (Mountain Guide)
Matt Chessor (Mountain Guide)
Eric Ostopkevich (Mountain Guide)
Tim Taylor (Rock Guide, Apprentice Alpine Guide)