Bighorn

Looks thin from the road (it is) but the plastic ice up to pitch 3 and the hero ice on pitch 4 made this one climb very nicely. Approached via the left side above the gully to avoid the approach ice. Solo'd the mandatory approach ice in the gully. This was very thin in spots. The bowl above was as free of snow as it can get, I believe. DT Highway is severely lacking snow. No signs of instability or avalanches. The day was calm, cloudy and near zero.

10cm of loose snow at the top of the climb, the terrain above looked below treshold. No wind or evidence of past wind, snow is still sitting on the trees. Ice was good, brittle, dry, aerated on the crux pillar. Good screws were tricky on this part. No water flowing on Kitty Hawk, top of Unicorn has water running. The approach gully is tedious, you need to gear up well before the climb and deal with a few short ice steps, plus crappy, steep side-hilling. Keep right at every fork in the track, a bit of a maze there.

Climbed all but the last pitch of Elliott Left Hand. The climb is still forming, and will be good to go soon. The last pitch is currently in quite stiff shape with overhanging medusae above a hollow, unprotectable tube, and the whole climb was relatively thin and wet. We carried avalanche gear the whole day, and saw a number of small loose dry sluffs off the sidewalls of the canyon. No evidence of larger avalanches, and we couldn't get a good view of the overhead from the road. All in all, a fun adventure, though I would be careful about heading up there with much more fresh snow.

<p>Minimal snow (10-15cm) and it was facets with a very thin (temperature/sun?) crust. We felt there was minimal concern in simple terrain.</p>

* The drive up through RM House had a little fresh snow but clear roads. Getting to the Nordegg area roads got covered, sometimes deep and wet snow. * Light snow when we parked around 9am and cloudy/foggy. * About 10cm of new snow walking up the ridge above the creek. * Accumulations in the canyon were much deeper. While sometimes it was low similar to the ridge, other places were knee to hip deep for a shortarse. * The new snow hides a few places where you can punch through to holes in the creek that without snow could probably be easily navigated around. Didn't feel like I was going to go for a swim but there are a couple open holes and a few booby traps. **IMPORTANT: Contrary to the book description, which has been transcribed to the app, the avi hazard is not as indicated for the approach. The wording seems to indicate an avi path from the left. It sounds singular and does not identify where it might be found. ++++After new snowfall there are several significant avi slides that fall from above you. ++++ * My observations. The lower canyon prior to the fork had a couple spots where debris accumulated. One of these was from observable slabs just to the right side. The lower canyon is a little less threatened. After the fork, there is a minor slope to the left to be aware of just above the ice step leading into the left fork. The bigger hazard comes from when the upper canyon narrows again. Through this section we encountered several size 1 avalanches that came from above the canyon walls (on both the left AND right sides) and we were unable to see the start zones from our angles. Some of the debris piles were maybe 2-3m deep but may have accumulated from multiple sluffs. Of the slides we saw, none may have completely buried a person but the snow was heavy and may have caught or injured someone below. The hip deep slogging meant it was nearly impossible to move quickly through each impact zone. * I believe we were very close to Lovely Parting Gifts but did not get close enough to see it. The route description left me with the impression that the climb, End Of The Line is not really impacted and that it would be possible to quickly move through the identified avi path on the left. That is wrong and climbers need to be aware of the vastly under stated hazard, especially in the upper canyon, or with recent snowfall. * My partner verbalized his discomfort a couple times and initially we opted to continue. Eventually I dropped the pack in an attempt to move quicker and take a look around the next corner in case I could see either climb (yet another corner though). He apologised a couple times when I agreed to retreat. Despite me believing we were so close, I told him he didn't need to apologise. It is NEVER a "wrong decision" to pull the plug. It may not be fully necessary and we may only have needed to go around another corner but that's not the point. Neither of us were right or wrong, but I hope others can accept sometimes, turning around is what should be done. A lesson I'd like to share. * I'm sure the avalanches were storm snow sluffing from steep accumulation zones, and dropping into the canyon. Maybe the activity will taper off as new snow stops accumulating up there. Remember you cannot see what's up there, and understand you should take full avi gear, including shovel and probe if you are intending going up there in the next couple days. * As we left, the snow had stopped and visibility was clearing. Snacks and bevvies in the car were a good consolation 😂

Winds picking up in the David Thompson region with lots of plumes and transport ongoing. 10cm recent storm snow on the route.

15-20cm of new snow (possibly Friday?) is seemingly isolated to the Elliot climbs. The Saturday climbing party turned around where the approach gully narrows, which had a fair amount new slough and loose dry debris in it. We climbed the first pitch. The canyon also had lots of new dry loose debris. We didn’t love the sun warming the slopes above, in combo with the canyon terrain trap, uncertainty about what lay above us and isolated spin drifts, so turned around. Likely to be a very short lived problem, but the new snow amounts are something to consider if winds pick up or temps rise like some forecasts have modelled.