Ice - Fang & Fist. and road in

<p>Road condition: Mostly clear of snow and good shape. Crossings are fairly mellow with a couple just starting to form small ice shelves. On a couple of crossings the ramps have gotten icy. Studded tires or just the right amount of gas works, but chains not needed. Snow levels: Much of the valley is either free of snow or low snow. Even on F&F there was very little snow between the lower pitches and the upper ice. However I noted across the way above Sitka's Slide and Keso's Curtain there were some accumulations. I don't know just what the aspect of those two slopes are but they are slightly different aspects/inclines and that shows a marked difference in accumulations. First pic. Exercise caution if considering Keso's Curtain. Fang & Fist: When someone sleeps in, two other vehicles beat you to the parking ? We ended up with one party ahead of us for the climb so we waited our turn. Climb looked wet but was actually nice and dry. More hooking than swinging so little ice falling. Featured and mushroomed in many sections. Sometimes parties will break the upper half of the steep pitches into two shorter pitches however this usually involves belaying to the right of the last pillar. No sheltered stance currently exists and that last pillar seems to be heavily trafficked up the right edge. Better to do the steep part of the climb in 2 long pitches at this time instead of 3. We went above the steep part of the climb but rather than stumble back down Claw Creek in the dark we turned around without climbing the last part of the climb. A bit of an iffy v-thread exists to get down the easier steps so we did a no-thread above it to return to the bolted station above the pillars. Walking down Claw Creek is fairly fast without much snow but it looked like it might snow later. Drive out was mostly after dark.</p>