Winter is settling back in around the Rockies and the ice is hopefully here to stay now.
Very early starts just barely got us to the head of the cue on Carlsberg on Thursday and the Urs Hole this morning.

Carlsberg is in good shape. Approach pitches are in decent shape as is the walk-around approach/descent. Good hooks on the main pitch already but it is somewhat cauliflowered and thus feels steep. The ice on the first couple of body lengths was solid but fairly aerated and it took me some fooling around to find the first solid screw placement. After that it was fat ice to the top.

Urs Hole is in good shape and a grand, kinda spooky adventure. No snow avalanche concerns yet but we were happy to be done by around 10am as it was getting warm and rockfall certainly seemed possible.

The snow surface is currently a mix of surface hoar, facets, suncrusts, windslabs etc. Hard to say what will happen when we finally get some snow but that is perhaps the main point-there will be a lots of uncertainty for awhile as we slowly see how the snow sticks and where avalanche activity begins to happen. This is where information sharing on the MIN, Canadian Rockies Ice climbing FB page, Gravsports etc can really help us all get a sense of what is going on in all those fine climbs in avalanche terrain.

Larry Stanier
ACMG Mountain Guide