Kerkeslin - ice

* At the car it seemed chilly with light winds. Gearing up at the approach ice was calm and felt warmer. Mostly cloudy day with the sun making only a brief appearance midday. * We were a party of four climbing as 2 ropes side by side. Apparently the climb is not as wide as some years but it was wide enough for us to climb as a group this way. There was a party just before us and later another two parties behind us. *The approach ice has some wet ice but generally good shape. Rap tree on the left. * First pitch mostly dry with some fractured ice falling. Bolted ring/chain anchor on the right. * Second pitch wet on the right but a dry line on the left. Also had fractured ice falling mostly towards the top of the pitch. Bolts and chains located on the right wall, a little high. * Third pitch had wet lines both sides but a dry line up the middle. Topping out towards the right side seemed better ice. A pair of rap rings on the right wall. * Above the third pitch the ice becomes easy steps. We went up a little but the party ahead of us returned saying they only found easy steps and walking. We followed them back down. * To rap the easy steps we used chain around a tree. This chain is partially enveloped by the tree bark which is not good for the tree. A bolted station would make more sense however despite brushing through nearby snow covered walls we did not find one. * Across the valley to the west looked to have quite a bit of snow. The slopes around Kerkeslin had visibly less snow; probably the warm sunny weather having melted a lot. We opted to carry transceivers on the route but not shovel/probes. Approach trail did not have deep snow either. Saw no debris anywhere on route but only one of our party had even been on the route previously so we were not familiar with the hazard.