Hey folks. Not a lot of traffic on the board lately. Anyone know if the upper mummies or Zack attack are in? How's the avy danger in the canyon lately and the road conditions for that matter?
Thanks,
Joe
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From my trompsing around in
From my trompsing around in the canyon over the past couple weeks I would say the avi conditions are not too threatening right now. I would certainly stay away from wind-loaded gullies. I have mostly only been digging small hand pits, which aren't super representative of the conditions, but most of the snow is not moving around. There certainly are facets on the bottom of the snow pack but they are feeling fairly strong.
As far as ZA and Upper Mummies.....Matt Wells and I climbed ZA over the ice fest weekend and the third pitch was quite thin with some choss climbing to be had before getting on thin ice. If I remember correctly, there wasn't enouch ice to even place a stubby until about a body length from the top (and that was my first piece). From the parking lot it looks like there is even less ice than when Matt and I did it, so my thought is that would be the crux.....the first two are pure rock climbing but fun, and the 4th was super brittle with a thin and hard ice roof to pull out at the top.
Went up to the Upper Mummies last Tuesday. The approach to M3 was actually very safe.....we were able to approach on mostly wind-scoured, dry ground, climbers left of the gully until just below the start of the climb. M3 was mostly rock with some hollow, and detached ice with not great pro (great lead my Matt). After several attempts to start M4 I opted to not climb it......really thin pencil with bad looking pro just isn't for me.
Hope this helps and if you get on them let us know how they are!
Cheers,
Kevin