Greetings people.

I just got back from a training weekend on Mt Begbie with a client. We gained the traverse ledge to the North Ridge on Saturday, and summited via the East Col/East Ridge today.

*Snow
We found the trail mostly snow free up to around 1750m elevation, where we quickly lost the trail and continued on snow for the rest of the way (you could ski down to this elevation). The snow line is lower than last year, but not by a huge amount (I skied to 1600m on the trail June 2nd last year). The snow from this elevation up to the summit was mostly 5-10cm boot penetration with the occasional post hole to the knees or deeper in rocky areas. (Fresh snow from a few days ago is cooked).
We had a pretty good freeze last night with a supportable crust that quickly broke down with intense sun today.

*Crevasses
We saw 3 crevasse (bergschrunds) on the way up to the col. The upper 2 were closed and only sagging a little bit, but the lowest one was open in many places.

*Avalanche Conditions
We carried shovel/probe/transceiver as we were uncertain about what to expect. We did not observe any natural or human triggered avalanches. With the sustained warm temperatures at the moment I wouldn’t be surprised to see Deep-Persistent-Slab avalanches.

There was a huge cleave in the summit cornice overhanging the NE Face, I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up on the glacier soon (photo attached).

*Traverse Ledge
I’ve attached a photo of the traverse ledge accessing the North Ridge. It has a big snow feature over the moat, making access to the ledge difficult. We managed to sneak around behind it through a tunnel, but it was difficult to tell what was supported or not. The rest of the North Ridge had a lot of snow on it and some cornices.

Enjoy summer, feels like it just started!

Alex Geary