We held our annual mountaineering camp at Starbird Pass in the Purcells from July 3-7.

We climbed Mt Monica east face, Eyebrow Peak NE ridge, Mt Aten north slopes and the west ridge of unnamed 2820 m (which the group christened Goat Peak due to the number of Oreamnos americanus in the vicinity).

Snow conditions were excellent with solid re-radiation freezes every night making travel fast in the morning. By mid morning the surface had softened enough to make downhill travel pleasant. The face on Monica was good kick stepping all the way to the ridge with an easy schrund crossing at the bottom.

There was plenty of rockfall coming off the north side of Monica, but we didn’t see anything recent that hit the route up Monica’s NW glacier.

The thin snowpack winter and hot spring was evidenced in the poor glacier coverage. The Monica glacier was still passable but the steeper rolls were melted back to ice which made travel problematic when combined with weak snow plugs in the crevasses. Since we had small guide to guest ratios we were able to manage it but larger groups could have more difficulty. The snow was going fast so travel will deteriorate further if the warm weather continues.

Lots of bird life around the meadows and tarns, plenty of goat sign with one close encounter, and perhaps one old melted out grizzly track crossing the Starbird Glacier. Flowers are mostly just past their peak.

I can highly recommend this zone for some general mountaineering. The access route from Monica Meadows was snow free, or Greg from Glacier Helicopters in Invermere can give you a lift.