I guided a couple of folks up Mt Hector today for Girth Hitch Guiding. The glacier was mostly bare on the lower half, and had up to 30cm of recent snow on the upper half. At 3100m it was 15cm of wet snow and by the time we got to 3300m it was dry. We could feel ice underneath with our crampons in most places.

There were a lot of decaying snow-plugs in crevasses that we were able to easily identify and stay away from today, but with some fresh snow this will be difficult.

We observed some pinwheeling today, but had no avalanche concerns where we travelled. I could imagine being concerned about small avalanches in different terrain.

Alex Geary