My guest Jeff B and I climbed in the Starbird Range August 20-26th. We flew in with Whitetooth Heli and set up a high camp near a small tarn at 2540m just west of Scotch Peak 4. From here we had easy access to the North Star Glacier and surrounding peaks.

We climbed the NE Ridge of Alpha Centauri, the South Ridge of Gwendolin Peak, the East Ridge of Scotch Peak 4, and Carmarthen Peak via the west slopes.

Overall we had good climbing and travel conditions on the glaciers.

We started off with smokey skies and warm temps on the 20th and 21st. Light rain and cooler temps moved in on the 22nd and we received a couple cms of snow above 2500m on the 23rd in the afternoon/evening. Warm temps and clear skies moved in by Thursday evening and the new snow had melted away by midday Friday.

North Star Glacier was mostly snow free and we freely moved around on dry ice throughout the week, not requiring a rope in low angled terrain.

We stayed away from steeper glaciel ice features with overhead rock fall hazard, and snow covered areas that we suspected had thin and weak snow bridging over crevasses. Lots of rockfall activity at all hours of the day and night on steep glaciel features. Loose unstable granite boulders were also a concern for us in several areas we travelled, where the glacier has recently receded from ridges and moraines.

It was an excellent week in a beautiful and seldom visited area. Reach out if you’re going in there and I can provide some more information.

Kris Irwin AG/ASG