The Professor Falls - ice

Grant P , Thursday 18th April, 2024 5:55AM

* Windy and wintry in Calgary and on the drive gave way to calmer cool conditions at the parking. Biking the asphalt was clear and from the split it looked to have been ploughed so it was also clear except for one short lightly covered spot. From the kiosk a lot of the trail is bare trail with some short snowy sections. A light skiff of new-ish snow sat on previous snow but had melted on the bare trail. I thought we were closer when we stashed the bikes although the last 10 mins of walking to the drainage seemed to be more icy anyway. Studded tyres would make it better to ride the icy sections towards the end but not a necessity. * The walk up the drainage was on snow and ice but there was noticeably less snow on the cliffs beside the lower pitches than observed higher on Rundle viewed from the highway. * P1 climbed and protected well. Slightly drippy on the left but dry climbing middle to right. Quite a bit of fracturing and small dinner plates. * P2 favoured a line on the left. Good pro and climbing, with dry ice. * P3 was dry and seemed on the easier side of grade 3 than normal. Good pro. * P4 was the wettest down the middle. Right side looked like it might be climbable but pro would be more challenging. Left side was again favoured. Good ice, good dry climbing, good pro. On topping out I found avi debris has buried the bolted anchor on the right. This is where the ATES 2 terrain ends. The debris had not gone down P4. The short ice step leading up from the P4 buried anchor has filled with ice and covered the rock with the chains. * At this point we were out of time because my buddy had commitments back in the city. When we started down we set a screw anchor at a small step just above the steep part of P4 and before it becomes all snow. We rapped from a no-thread drilled on the right edge of dry ice in case you want to look for it. * The day was mostly cloudy although the sun did poke through at times in a hazy way. The climb itself didn't get sun although slopes nearby did. Winds remained generally calm or light. No snow transport or other avi signs were observed low on the route. Mostly we were unable to observe what was going on above the route until above P4 although from the highway in the morning it looked cloudy and wintery. Temps were cool without feeling cold and even back at the car it was pleasant but not warm. Sorry, no thermometer for actual temps. * Overall the lower part of the route is still in great shape, dry, and the easiest biking I've had in years. An anchor placed higher at the top of P4 would be handy because I've seen the existing chains get covered in ice or new storm snow before.