With the relatively warmer winter we'd been having up 'till recently, I was slightly worried that Avalanche Lake might not be in condition to cross. However, the hiker-highway that led across it left no doubt as to it's integrity, and we walked down the length of the lake, angling for the avalanche-battered cone of trees that marks the start of the Trap Dike.
We arrived at the base of the dike to discover a couple of parties ahead of us (as expected). A team of three had just started climbing the first icy portion in the dike, and they seemed to be going quite slowly. A team of two french men behind them were patiently waiting for their turn. We therefore had lots of time to get our gear organized and get ready to climb.
courtesy RHanel
Roland and Caroline both had technical ice axes (but Jenn and I only had alpine axes). We had agreed in advance that we would spread the axes around evenly. Each of us would use one technical axe and one alpine axe. If the ice wasn't too difficult, this would suffice.
After about half an hour or so of waiting around for the bottleneck to clear up, it was our turn to go, and we started up the deep notch of the Trap Dike. The first section of ice was a pretty series of terraced bulges, colored in teal and amber hues. After this was a short thrutch up a little chimney-like section. Roland put in a screw here and there, and it was easy enough that we climbed it using a running belay. Above this was a section of snowy hiking at a reduced grade. In general, the Trap Dike is like this - a steep bit, then a flatter bit, then a steep bit, etc.
