| I spent the past two days guiding on Mount Huber above Lake O'Hara in Yoho National Park.
August 8: We retreated from halfway up the upper glacier due to incoming electrical storm but had a rockfall near miss on the descent. Almost immediately after exiting the climber's rightmost of the two gullies that split the upper section of the Huber Ledges, a barrage of microwave- to television-sized rocks strafed the gully. If we had been 5-10 minutes later, we surely would have been vapourized. The trigger was most likely the rain (although it was fairly light at that time) or even possibly the very high winds we were experiencing. There is a small lingering snow patch high above this gully whose meltwater could have also been the cause.
August 9: Summitted Mount Huber with different guests in near perfect conditions. A solid freeze made for fast travel on the two glaciers and a straight-up line of good steps cut the face to the summit. The bergshrund is well bridged and easily crossed. Cornice hazard is minimal but still present. By the time we were descending the face at 10:30am, the freeze was gone and the steps were getting soft making for easier downclimbing, but I wouldn't want to be any later. Needless to say, we had a good rest before the rockfall gullies then moved through them very quickly. Total exposure time was about 10 minutes and we tried to minimize the exposure by hugging the side walls.
Sean Isaac ACMG Alpine Guide
FB: Sean Isaac Guiding
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