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Snow Dome and the Athabasca Glacier approach from the snow coach road.Athabasca from the snow coach road - it looks so close! It's not. From here you can see the approach for the north face routesFerenc follows the tracks up frozen snow off the road.The lower ice fall from the AA Glacier. The route to the glacier skirts this on climber's left via rock and scree.Looking back at Ferenc and our approach through the lower moraines.The tracks end. Boo. Note the cairn and the faint sign of a buried track in the scree underneath the snow cover.Up close and personal with the AA Glacier ice fall.Again, there is a faint trail under the snow. Thanks to the brutal winds this area sees, there was little chance of big slides on this section.Some awkward moves on 'shoes!You don't want to get caught in a slide here. The snow was a bit punchy but as you can see, pretty thin.This is where a slide would take you over the headwall section.Over the headwall and firmly on the AA Glacier now with Snow Dome, Kitchener and K2 in the background.Roped up on the AA Glacier with the AA Col directly ahead and above Ferenc.The AA Glacier is a special place, nestled between two 11,000ers and not visible from the road. Kitchener in the background here.Looking back down at Ferenc after ditching the 'shoes and rocketing straight up the steep snow slope.Looking north off the steep snow slope to the AA col. Our tracks just visible at bottom center. Andromeda looming across the AA Glacier at left.Looking up at the rock bands above our route. We easily broke through them on good snow.As you can see, this is a pretty steep slope. You definitely want stable conditions here and snow is vastly preferable to scree or ice.Ferenc takes the lead for a bit.
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