You're welcome! And thanks for the comments. Earlier in the summer, I was with a different group on Mt. Athabasca, also part of the Columbia Icefields. The snow conditions on the glacier were terrible. There had been heavy snowfall and warm days, meaning a very deep and unstable snow pack. Parts of the climbing route are in prime avalanche zones and there are terrible overhanging seracs, most bigger than cars. Not a good thing to have fall on you. We spent three days on the mountain. We aborted our climbs and on the last day decided to attempt A2 from the A2 glacier and at 2:00AM it began raining, well, pouring. By 4:30 the rain turned to snow and we were soon in the middle of a near-zero-visibility blizzard. We found a snow slope, practiced our self-arrest skills until about noon and headed back to the cars.
Here we are gearing up, ready to get onto the North Glacier of Mt. Athabasca. Withing two hours the clouds were gone and the sun was busy burning us
Unlike us, a group decided to brave the terible snow conditions. We heard a giant slab release and looked across the glacier to see a giant avalanche sweep a rope team about 800M down the mountain. Luckily for them, we had a radio and called Parks Canada and within no time they launched a chopper rescue. Unbelievably, only one climber was hurt and no one was killed.
Since we couldn't go for the summit, we headed to the A2-Athabasca Col on the Boundary section of the North Glacier. Conditions were decent there. Here's our rope team taking a short break...
The view from the Col includes the incredibly picturesque North East Ridge of Mt. Athabasca...
Another view from the Col, towards A2. On the right you can see our tracks.
