Fissile - Whirlwind col
We found some french canadian cave dwellers in the col
The high route of the traverse was well filled in, besides a couple open slots
Crossing Overlord was SCARY. The traverse along the North side of Overlord was bullet proof wind board and was completely smooth. I went first and realized I couldn't get an edge in with my skins on. But too late, I was already committed. I just tried to control my slipping by maintaing enough speed to make it to the other side. I yelled back to be VERY careful, but Liam had already started. He also sketchily made it across. So instead I took my ice axe off my pack and waved it in the air to notify the others of just how serious it was. The other two slowly made their way across, heeding the advice.
Andy crosses the Benvolio - Fitzsimmons col to gain shelter from the wind
Climbing Fitzsimmons
We summited Fitzsimmons and transitioned. The snow consisted of a crust over top of facets. Luckily the crust disappeared quickly and we got to enjoy powder on the NE face
From here, we weren't quite sure about which route to take. It was fairly obvious (not completely) that the gulley we were in cliffed out at the bottom. Do we go right and pick our way through cliffs to get into it? Or left, and go over a blind roll-over on 50 degree slopes.
Liam does some route finding
We made our way through a steep narrow section, then traversed over to the far side to get to better snow. The snow was good, although variable in places. It was mostly cruisy from here.
We skinned up to Iago and got confronted by quite the breeze... errr, gale. I gained the summit and quickly transitioned and skied down to the notch to gain shelter from the wind.
Cool view of the NE face from here... although Jason has a better picture (in Jason's picture we skied the sun-lit slope)
And then I waited... and waited. As I waited I tried to scope out the West face, but everytime I poked my head over, I'd get blasted by the wind and ice pellets would sting my face. The light was flat (thanks to the clouds that weren't in the forecast), and the wind made it harder to see.
"Does it look ski-able?" came the call finally
"uh... I think so" I replied, some hesitation in my voice
After some humming and hawing, Liam volunteered to go first on belay so we could test out the snow and see if it was edge-able. He side stepped the first few meters then did a jump turn. Seemed "okay". Maybe it'll get softer lower... This coins a new term "Doing stupid things safely"
I coiled the rope and went last. The face was A LOT scarier than in powder. It also seemed steeper. The first 30m were frightening, as the light was flat, the wind and ice pellets were howling, and the snow was wind board.
Once below the first few rocks, the snow quality improved to marginal.
Down near the glacier, the snow got downright OK.
Alpenglow
Night slog
Beer and food tasted good. Thanks for the fun day Cam, Liam, & Andy!
