Field, Guiness Stout ice climb

Quick report

Weather

foggy, cloudy, cold

We climbed Guiness Gully and Stout, 2 things stood out regarding the snowpack. At the base of Stout, wich was recently bombed, the resulting crown extended well into the trees (mature forest there) on climbers right. We went that way to check out the next climb, High Test. While traversing over through mature forest, there were no signs of any propagation, and foot penetration varied from thigh to above waist. At the edge of trees, just about to step on the open, unbombed slope bellow High Test, l sank all the way to the ground punching through crust and deep facets under it. We dug a full depth pit there in 100-120cm of snow, and got a very surprising CT3 sudden planar result down 40cm. We bolted out of there. Take this info with a solid grain of salt, as we might have completely missed the big picture. The approach to Stout was up a beaten track on rock hard avy scoured snow with 8-10cmof powder on top.