[MCR] Howsons healed

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

Last week's terrible weather brought down large avalanches just in time 
for a CAA Level I course. I'm sure glad they weren't here to ski! Now 
things are cooling down and the 16 December surface hoar layer is well 
squashed and bridged under 30 to 60 cm of hard and heavy crusts. We are 
back to our usual pattern of concern about storm snow only. Of that 
there is a bit, and the skiing has also markedly improved. While the 
snowpack in the valley bottom is still a bit shallow at 175 cm, I found 
more than 350 cm at the toe of the Solitaire Glacier. I could not see 
the crevasse zones on the Loft and Burnie Glaciers, but suspect that 
they are now well covered. There was no widespread avalanching in the 
alpine, so I think that the surface hoar was destroyed there before it 
got buried. Good times are here again.

-- 
Christoph Dietzfelbinger
IFMGA/ UIAGM Mountain Guide - Bear Mountaineering and the Burnie Glacier Chalet
Box 4222	Smithers, B.C.		V0J 2N0	Canada
tel. 250-847-3351/ fax 250-847-2854 
info at bearmountaineering.ca		www.bearmountaineering.ca