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

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

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 at telus.net