Mt Whymper fr. Chickadee Valley

Mt Whymper - made the summit of Whymper today from the north via Chickadee valley. Lots of cold to endure, -28c to start and hardly reached above -20c until we got to the col 5.5 hours later. Found lots of windslab the entire way, mostly old. A few places were a definite concern for loose dry avalanches that is noted in the forecast lately. We set a skin track without too much trouble until about 200m from the col (~2500m or so) where we found a consistent thin windslab that kept breaking under our skis along with some very firm sections - it rendered us unable to skin up any longer so off the skis came. The bootpack was a struggle with all the facets below the old windslab, but the effort was worth it - fantastic summit views and endless sunshine. No wind at the summit! The ski down had us concerned for sloughs and thin windslab slides so we ski cut pretty aggressively at first but to our surprise nothing at all slid the entire way back down to the valley. Ski quality varied from poor to OK to good in some spots. A fine day overall including some challenging times. Tons of tracks on the southern aspects of the valley - like an unbelievable amount. No natural activity observed today and only the very top of the snowpack had us concerned. Can't complain even though the skiing kinda sucks!

Clear calm and cold.