Ice - Kitty Hawk and Unicorn

<p>Kitty Hawk was actually our back up plan so we approached later than expected. Approach through the trees was easy walking but once you get into the creek its still somewhat stumbly with enough snow to hide some rocks. As you go up the last slopes before the canyon its twice as fast to get up the couple ice steps if you crampon up but if you're stubborn you can grovel in boots like we did. Go for crampons. There is also older debris that could be spindrift accumulation or could be small avi debris. From the road it didn't look to have significant accumulations of snow above the route but the route does get avalanched each winter. The avi bulletin, apparent low snow levels, and lack of winds both below the climb and looking up for telltales seemed acceptable. I saw some cracking in the surface crust in the canyon. As we left I noticed some pinwheeling in the drainage around 4.40pm that either I hadn't noticed approaching earlier Unicorn was not fully formed yet. We had heard Kitty Hawk was very wet a week ago but it was remarkably dry today. The first half of the climb was in decent shape and took protection well. A number pick holes to hook or draft. Some fracturing but not too bad. The upper half was challenging. Perhaps a result of the prior wet condition and flash freezing but below the steeper section were mushrooms leading up to chandeliered steep terrain where getting good screws was compounded by the difficult climbing. Once above the steepest section the climbing remains challenging because despite looking like more solid ice, it gives huge fracturing potential. We both knocked off some significantly sized lumps that it would be extremely dangerous to try being a second party on route.</p>

Weather Conditions

Sunny.