Beautiful day ski touring without skis on Mt. Victoria. Snow began around 2500m and there was one pitch of spicy verglased rock climbing before we got into snow covered rock scrambling on the Huber ledges. Huber glacier had from 30-60cm of snow. Tough "double penetration" walking and the snow wasn't settled enough to lend much assurance yet to the snow bridge crossings. Good travel in the gullies to the ridgecrest as they had seen some sun the day before and some small sloughs had come down during the storm. Snow on the ridge was also 20-50 cm deep and unconsolidated as of this morning. Some small cornices that were easy to manage.

Most significantly to us, we saw no signs of instability in the storm snow. No whumphing, no cracking, very limited sloughing in very steep terrain, no fracture lines. It could well be different in other places but it looks good where we were today.

Unless we get a LONG hot, sunny autumn this may be the first layer of the winter snowpack on the North facing glaciers. So far it is bonding well to the old glacier surface.

Summer is back but winter is coming!

Larry Stanier
ACMG Mountain Guide