[MCR] Lake O'Hara update August 18th, 2012

Subject: [MCR] Lake O'Hara update August 18th, 2012
Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2012 18:15:45 -0600
As everyone else has been saying, the past few days have been mostly 
spectacular with only a light dusting of new snow above 3000m around O'Hara on 
tuesday night, the 14th. That snow is basically all gone now.

As mentioned elsewhere, the glaciers and gullies are changing with this long 
heat wave. Bare ice and rock covered ice has become way more common in the past 
few days. Even the Opabin glacier requires some rough travelling now. The 
Ringrose/Glacier couloir just began to REALLY show 2 crevasses/glide cracks 
that will make the ascent of that gully slower and more hazardous.  A few 
noticeable changes on the Odaray glacier from thursday to saturday also.

The snow travel has been excellent with great freezes and the snow mostly 
staying together in the warmth.  Cornices are "almost" gone from the area but 
the few remaining ones are still weak in the heat. 

All the big alpine rock routes are as good as they get(which in some cases 
ain't that good:) 

As is common in august-the retreating snow and ice has let some unstable rocks 
become "self supporting" for the first time in a long time. They were pushed 
around by the gliding ice and snow and may be just a "kiss away" from falling. 
They are the #1 renewable resource in the rockies so even the classics may 
still have a good crop.

Larry Stanier
ACMG Mountain Guide
laristan@xxxxxxxxx
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