Climbing Conditions

4 photos

Changing conditions

Mt Aberdeen and Lake Louise group

Climbing Conditions

We climbed Mt Aberdeen and Haddo Peak on July 13th. The climbing is pretty straightforward although conditions seem to be changing rapidly. The toe of the glacier is dry and the firn line only starts around 2700m. There are signs of rockfalls at the base of the climb. We were very happy with an early start as we could witness a significant amount of frozen rocks on the toe of the glacier ranging from peddles to microwave-size ones. All of these rocks are ready to slide down as soon as the melt starts. Moreover, we had to carefully choose our line of ascent as the ropes could easily get snagged and cause rocks to fall.
The Serac above the Bergschrund has been fairly active recently with some fairly big chunks (fridge size ones) having fell pretty close to the normal line of ascent. We only witnessed small debris falling off it. Most of the bigger pieces seemed to have fallen a few days to a week ago. We decided to avoid going too far right to stay away from those debris.
The Bergschrund itself is quite filled but is starting to open despite a lot of snow covering it and most of the snow is starting to sag over crevasses. The climbing above the Bergschrund is full of snow and we were having knee-deep steps all the way up except for the last steep section where there were only 10-15 cm covering ice and rock. Overall the climbing was straightforward and with a light freeze at night, the hazards were quite manageable. We punched boot-deep on the lower part of the glacier and knee-deep higher up. There is still up to 180cm of snow on some section of the glacier and a lot of week old point of release avalanches were observed all around the Lake Louise group. I added a couple of photos of the conditions in the area.

On The Map

These observations and opinions are those of the person who submitted them. The ACMG and its members take no responsibility for errors, omissions, or lapses in continuity. Conditions differ greatly over time and space due to the variable nature of mountain weather and terrain. Application of this information provides no guarantee of increased safety. Do not use the Mountain Conditions Report as the sole factor in planning trips or making decisions in the field.