Access:
Climbed the west ridge of Mt Tupper yesterday via the Lone Pine slide path approach. A strong overnight freeze and a pre dawn start allowed for hard snow conditions on old avalanche debris. In the upper slide path we found committing, exposed cramponing with serious fall potential on hard snow with icy patches.

The Ridge:
It was possible to avoid most of the snow patches on the lower west ridge before the Hermit gendarme. The summit tower provided dry rock climbing with avoidable snow patches on ledges. A cool wind minimized snow melt along the ridge.

Descent:
We avoided the upper Lone Pine slide path opting to descended southwest toward Hermit Meadows before turning south down the farthest west access into the Lone Pine slide path on soft but supportive snow all the way down to within 100m of the highway.

Alpine conditions:
In general there is widespread snow cover above 1800m. North facing terrain on Mt Sir Donald is very snowy including the classic NW Ridge route. The upper west face routes on Mt MacDonald are still snowy above 2700m.

Parks Canada Visitor Safety
Glacier & Mt Revelstoke National Parks