Beowulf and driving

Grant P , Saturday 24th February, 2024 6:30AM

* Driving. TransAlta road is decent. Hard pack snow with some ice under it occasional spots. Coming out was slushy so could lead to icy spots with an overnight freeze. Snow getting moved around by strong winds when you get in the valley. Worst section was after the old diversion dam but weekend offroader traffic may best ruts back into it again. From the dam to river Crossing 40 was the bulk of the drifting and less of a problem from there to Beowulf. * On the first pitch, the first step is heavily sun affected. The main step has some sun effect but not as bad, has some shady spots of good ice for screws. The fracture that happened in late Dec is visible but seems stable. Rap anchors are easily accessible now. * The middle rambles have had a lot of snow deposited and are in good shape. The first bigger step was a little wet on its left at the top out going up with a little water pooling as you went around the corner. Rapping down, the upper part was well wet. The longer flow going into the narrow canyon was sun affected but climbed well. A short wet flow on the right entering the narrows was easily avoided. * The end pitches were a mix of wet and dry lines. Quite a bit of fracturing on this ice.

Windy in the valley and was strong funnelled in the narrow canyon sections. The wind was moving snow and quickly filling tracks, both vehicle, and boot tracks. Lots of spindrift visible on the north facing cliffs of Costigan opposite the climb. Quite likely all around although not visible in the canyon. Quite an accumulation in the canyon bottom with more spindrift blowing in throughout the day. Temps seemed fairly warm however the windchill made it feel kinda cold.