Recent Condotions At Abbot Pass

Alex Lawson, Ian Welsted and I spent the last 3 days guiding from Abbot pass. On July 6th we approached from the Lake O’Hara side and found very good hiking conditions all the way up. The snowpatches and snowdrifts make for a quick ascent to the hut.
On the morning of July 7th we headed up to Lefroy despite moderate to strong winds and light precipitations the night before. We observed stable conditions all the way up with snow covering the entire couloir up to the summit ridge. With soft snow (ankle deep or more) all the way up, which made for quick travel. The summit ridge traveled well with the little amount of new snow that had accumulated. Although quite saturated, we didn’t observed any instabilities from the snowpack despite light snowfalls in the morning.
On the morning of July 8th we ascended South Victoria. The route is overall in great condition with a fair amount of snow along the way. The first climbing pitches are fairly dry and the rest of the rock pitches are mostly covered in thin rime at the moment. The ridge travels easily with soft snow. We didn’t encounter any ice.
During out stay,the temperature stayed relatively cool with minimal solar radiation.