[MCR] Rockies, Lake O"Hara Feb 7th.

The wind blew like a bad movie here yesterday and it made a mess of most things TL and above. There seemed to be more scouring than wind loading and in the sunshine today we so only a few signs of avalanche activity. All the passes would be loaded on at least one side and we haven't made it up to Opabin pass once in the past 10 days because of windslab concerns. We certainly are not skiing big features like Schaffer bowl and generally still avoiding being under them. The snowpack is fairly facetted out in shallow areas so I am guessing travel on Cathedral and Collier would be poor unless it was wind packed.

The ice routes on Wiwaxy all look great. However the approaches must be assumed to be windslabs over facets so they would require a very careful approach.

Thinking forward to spring steep skiing, Mt. Lefroy and Glacier look much snowier than they have previous winters so they may just be in good shape if and when we get a trusty spring snowpack.

Larry Stanier
ACMG Mountain Guide
laristan@telus.net

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