Mt. Athabasca North Face

Once on the glacier, we observed good crust recovery, with boot penetration of ~10cm. We found evidence of a strong refreeze the night before. The schrund was easily bypassed on the left side of the face, with supportive snow for nice bucket steps most of the way up the north face. Higher on the face, we found the snow was well bonded to the underlying ice, making for nice climbing conditions. The crux mixed pitch had a mix of snow and ice on it. We found 10cm ice screws useful on the crux pitch. On the final exit pitch we also found short ice screws useful. There is some cornice growth on the summit ridge of Athabasca. During our descent of the ramp route we found bare ice, bare scree and supportive snow. The snow on the ramp was supportive, and temps well below freezing when we descended late Saturday night.