Given how snowy the Rockies are right now, I figured Mixed Master near the Weeping Wall might be a good choice for a low avalanche hazard, mixed climbing option. It was -10 C, calm, and overcast when we left the car. It looked like the area had received about 5 cm the day before.

It started snowing at the base of the climb and dropped about 1 cm of low density snow before I started up the first 50 m pitch. While belaying up my partner, a squawl came in fast and it snowed at a rate of ~3 cm / hour for about 5 min, while the winds picked up. I noticed a bit of light spin drift coming off the rocks to climber's right of the climb. A few minutes later we were showered by heavy spin drift that funnelled straight down our gully for almost 10 seconds.

My partner wasn't too far from the belay so I brought him up to discuss options. The snow and wind had stopped by the time he arrived, and we debated the terrain above (traversing pitches that would make retreat harder) and the chance of the slide being an isolated event.

As we were chatting at the belay, another strong spin drift hit us, and we quickly set up to lower my partner to the ground. Two more spin drifts hit us as I was lowering him. I rapped to the ground and we walked down to get a better look at the terrain above. The sun was coming out which provided enough definition in the snow surfaces to see better.

A large, steep, shoulder of rock to the left of the top part of the gully had shed its snow but this alone didn't seem enough to create all the spin drift we experienced. There is more low angle terrain before the last pitch that holds snow but we couldn't get a good look at it from our angle. We could now see in the better light that all the steep surfaces in the area showed signs of sluffing.

It doesn't take much force to potentially knock a climber off their stance in mid swing or cause them to drop gear while trying to place it, so although we didn't witness any more sluffing while walking back to the car, we were happy to retreat.

It looks like the ice in the top pitch isn't touching down yet. I also included a shot of the Weeping Wall. The 93N hasn't had the shoulders ploughed yet, so passing oncoming vehicles is tight, and getting too close to the sides makes it easy to have your wheels pulled in by the deep snow.

We probably should have been skiing today instead.