Sunday, September 2, 2007

Mt Little (Aug 28)

Climbed Mt Little from Moraine Lake (aka Mt Big or Mt Not-So-Little) in a 13 hour round trip with Lake O'Hara Lodge staff, Tom and Julia. It was a cold, clear night with thick valley cloud hovering at 2000m which moved out by 9am. The slippery log crossing at the end of the lake had a good centimetre of ice coating it (crampons on). The Perren Route has dried off with no snow left from the last the day before. The glacier had 15cm of new dry snow with almost no wind effect. The snow face (NW aspect) of Mt Little sported almost 30cm of snow from the past couple of storm cycles overlying ice. Signs of old sluffing but no new activity observed. The upper rock ridge was heavily plastered which made the scree sections easier but short rock sections a bit slower. Cold day with -2C on the summit (3139m) at 12 noon. The snow on the face was still dry on our way down but it was moist and balling on the lower tongue of the glacier by 2pm.