Difficult glacier travel on Waddington

Flew into Fury Gap on Aug. 3 with Mike King. Spent two short days breaking boot-top trail to the start of the ridge crest to the right of the standard Angel Glacier. North East aspects were loaded with an average of 40cms from the week long storm ending on Aug. 2nd, but were not reactive. Pioneered a new route on climbers right of the ridge crest to the Epaulette Glacier, avoiding further soft snow, on a surprisingly reasonable snow ramp. The summit tower had cleaned up in the days prior to Aug. 6th enough to make the level of icefall reasonable for an ascent. Descent by the standard Bravo Glacier in the early am made for hardpacked fast travel. Half-way between the Bravo Headwall (many fixed rappel anchors) and Rainy Knob a large serac band was passed on skiers far left, partly thanks to wands left by another party who had earlier abandoned their attempt.
An emergency cache including white gas has been left at the obvious bivi boulder at Fury Gap. Many thanks to Whitesaddle Air for continued excellent service.