Neil Colgan Hut via Scheisser Ledges - July 26-28 2019. The ledges are dry except for 1 unavoidable exposed snow slope. Although we did get off route on the way up - the entire route is clearly marked with red paint circles and cairns. If you don't see those for a while you're probably off route. The path is generally very well defined, very obvious on descent. The 2nd and upper chain has been chopped and is gone- we solo'd up that section and it was a bit tough with full shank boots and heavy packs (on the way back we did 2 30m rappels). There are new double bolted anchors with rap rings at all 4 rappel sections which was great. We did not use 2 of them, and felt OK to downclimb. 6 hours car to hut including getting a bit lost. Travel on the glaciers was easy all weekend with little foot pen. Only when approaching in front of Fay was there some post holing but not for long. We went up Tonsa Peak shortly after arriving and had a tough go, the rock is batshit rotten, and route finding was tricky, with the "book of lies" not saying much of anything useful, it actually says "no difficulties"..ha... We thought the LH peak was the summit, it is not, and it is harder to reach than the true summit, and about 2m lower. A direct traverse between them is unrealistic. The true summit is bump 2 of 5. I will draw a line for the route in the pics. The rockfall danger on this trash pile is real. I highly do not recommend going up here unless you have nothing better to do, it sucks. After we descended this dumpster fire in what felt like hours we went over to peak 3.5 which took like 5 minutes from the glacier. The view up here is excellent and considering how easy it is to ascend it is an absolute requirement that you go up here. It looks huge from the lake! A quick walk back to the hut, some food, and we then went up Mt Bowlen for sunset. Took us 22 minutes up from the hut. Sweet. Scrambling was mostly easy, maybe moderate but barely. Rock was generally solid, which a nice path to follow. Views are fantastic, an also "must do" considering how easy it is. A pretty big day 1, we were tired.

Day 2: With an early alarm and goal for Mt Fay W ridge we turned the alarm off due to extreme winds and questionable clouds. The wind was probably the most sustained extreme wind I've ever experienced, so we didn't want to chance Fay. We slept in a bit then decided to head for Mt Babel since it's apparently an easy scramble (it is). We made it to about 10 mins below the summit and the "questionable clouds" did their thing and a lightning storm began. With our ice axes buzzing and thunder pounding we ran back to the hut, getting absolutely drenched in the process, and nearly hit by lightning more than once. Unsure how my face isn't bleeding from all of the ice blasting we endured.. at least we weren't stuck up on Fay. We hung up all of our soaked gear and cranked all the burners to dry it out, and then the CO alarm goes off, ugh. Bad day 2 so far... We had some rye to relax and watched the storm - and somehow decided it was a good idea to try Mt Babel again in the evening (maybe it was the rye??) , so we did. The "sucker hole" remained and we made it up and back in 2hr 20mins, including a 2min summit stay because the wind was absolutely fucked.
Day 3: Early alarm for Mt Little sunrise summit. Made it up in 45mins plenty early for sunrise with excellent travel on the snow slope. There was a dusting of snow overnight which made the scrambling "exciting". This peak is fantastic. Some stiff exposed 4th class scrambling on good rock after a steep snow climb, and fantastic views. One of my favorites ever. Another must do. We then headed down the Schiesser Ledges beginning at 8:30AM and made it back to the car for 12. We did 2 30m rappels to get down the section that used to have a chain. We downclimbed the lower chain using it "via feretta" style, then downclimbed the short section below that. All things considered, the Schiesser ledges are definitely 5th class in 3-4 spots and have some severe exposure in some other spots. It is not a "scramble" at all without that 2nd chain, but we did enjoy the route more than we expected. I'd do it again, but will probably try Perren next time, since it's more direct.

I took TONS of photos of everything I could in the area. I have larger files available if you want em. Things are pretty snowy up high for this time of year, which may or may not be a good thing. Conditions for what we did were great. We had the hut to ourselves all weekend. Enjoy the pics, Cheers.