We wandered up the Stanley Valley this morning with sights on repeating the recent new route across the valley from Nemesis. Strong winds and what looked like terrible walking on snowed up talus made us changes plans to Sinus Gully and the pitches above Killer Pillar. We couldn't see the terrain above those routes in the clouds and neither of us could clearly remember the exact nature of that terrain. Good ice conditions(for October) and snowed up rock to reach the ice pitches above Killer Pillar. We turned around there as the winds were certainly moving new snow around and, again, we were uncertain about the terrain above the route.

The wind has certainly altered the snow in the alpine and likely created windslabs that will linger and power sloughing while the wind was turned on. A great post from Canadian Rockies ice climbing Facebook page certainly showed what the concern is with big dust clouds running well into fans.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/RockiesIce/

Larry Stanier
ACMG Mountain Guide