North 40

As the day went on, snow began to fall from the rock wall across from where the climbs were taking place. Multiple members had close calls with falling snow.

* Approach trail was good but a little soft leaving. An overnight freeze may lead to icy conditions in future. * Tasting Fear was in good shape however it normally forms as two pillars which will then join into a curtain. This year the left steep pillar is mostly daggers with one small line coming a ways down. It may not form fully this year. The current pillar will accommodate two ropes which with a second party showing up shortly after us, worked great for trading ropes. Appreciate the cooperation and socialising guys. *The smaller side ice flow left of TF is climbable but isn't as well formed as typical. It didn't get climbed but could accommodate a third rope if busy. *Bridge Too Far looked to be in but the first pitch looked more like a pillar than a curtain so far. The upper ice looked big and fat, however the climb was only observed from the trail and not close up. *The south facing slopes and cliffs looked mostly wind scoured. The snow has likely been transported into gully features. The avi drainages we crossed didn't seem terrible but we did come across some hikers taking a break in one of them. We advised them to relocate off to the side even though I didn't think an avi was imminent. One or two of the avi drainages did have fresh spindrift covering the trail in the morning.

I was hoping for a little more ice for take a newbie day. Most of the climb is not there. The far left has half a pitch although we were able to climb a couple variations at least. We left as a second party showed up. More than two parties would not be good until more ice shows up. Two seepage pillars on the right might be ok for someone looking to finish on a drytool route although the pillar further right didn't look good to place screws, chandeliered. Over on the left side, the ice that is there climbs ok but it's still possible to swing into rock in a couple spots. Then the transition at the lip is fairly thin, and continues as snow and scrambling to the rap anchor. Shorter screws are better for the thickness of available ice. So Wedge Smear is partly in but mostly bare rock. Over on My Kidd, Kidd Falls is looking fairly big. Obviously zero comment on the quality of conditions from so far away. Mostly added a couple pics for people to see the Avi terrain above. Looks to have lower than usual accumulation so far. Most of the morning the wind was quite minimal at Wedge Smear. It noticeably picked up around mid day and I was looking over at Kidd for transport. Didn't notice any transport but maybe there was little left for transport after wind events earlier this week.

Explosive avalanche control out of a convex roll produce a Sz3, that step down to Nov 17 FC/MFc. Crown depth 60 – 130cm. Est. Width 90m / Est. Length 200m. Early ski in the vicinities only saw some minor soft wind slab reaction (top 5cm, 1F-).

**Approach trail mostly good with occasional icy spots. After leaving the trail and heading up the steep slope to the base of the climb it might have been easier to have micro spikes but we managed without. **First pitch very wet on the left. There is a nice groove up the middle but while getting screws is possible its also challenging because of a lot of chandeliered ice. Combination of hooking and swinging. A steeper line on the right coming out of the cave looks to have good ice for screws but was described as steeper than it looks. Second pitch above the chain anchor had decent ice that protects well but produced a fair bit of fracturing and falling ice that will reach the base of the climb. **Upper ice is very steep on the right and easier as you move left. One party climbed the right side and said despite the chandelier it protected ok but was wetter than it looked. We climbed a groove up the middle that had very wet chandeliered ice on the right but good dry ice on the left that protected great. That led to endless calf burning low angle ice. The fourth pitch had easy ice with some sun effect to it. **The snow field between the upper and lower pitches has avalanched with the debris sitting in an accumulation towards the bottom of the slope. It doesn't look to have gone into the,narrow walk between upper/lower ice or over the,lower pitches.

None observed

Witnessed a class 1 avalanche at the bottom of the second pitch. Ice was featured and plastic on the first pitch. Didnt climb the rest of the route.

Climbing was fantastic, quite a bit of water in spots but all in all a good day. There were 2 incidents of reactive slab one at the base of the climb and the 2nd in the middle of the 2nd pitch in the gully, I didn't get a chance to get a picture of the other one as we were repelling. The 1st was pretty insignificant as seen in the picture but still worth noting the 2nd was about 20cm deep and about 2.5m wide. It propagated as a large plate but didn't slide as the angle wasn't enough.

10cm soft (1F) windslab in lee areas. Fetches are scoured with melt freeze crust >1cm thick. Evidence of a persistent slab in isolated features 20cm down. Currently non-reactive.

Someone come up here quick and give me a belay. Partner had to leave right as we got here because he forgot he had clients today. So ice is still in good shape. Mostly dry with one wet line on the left side that is actually a nice shade of blue. Some small dinner plating but generally good sticks. Screws are probably decent, havent used any. Pretty sure it will still be in good shape the coming weekend. Bonus info: Shouldn't be a,surprise to hear Kidd Falls is looking rather white. The lower pitch is really wide making the upper pitch look skinny. Not even going to guess how sun bleached the ice is or how well attached. Yes there is snow in the bowls above.

Monthly snow survey conducted by U of S Coldwater Lab. Undesirable touring location, but great for science! Still great context for those traveling in alpine & wind affected terrain, especially in the Kananaskis region. Takeaways: snow pack heights are extremely variable in the alpine, and wind plays a major game here. Think about moving in areas where the snow pack thins and what snow layers are present below you.

Some small shooting cracks on approach to Sinatra falls. One sz 0.5 slide triggered right at the base of the climb.

**Kidd Falls looked to have both pitches but the bowls above had snow. **For anyone looking for shorter easy ice, the curtain down and left of Kidd Falls known as the Devonshire Wall, looked to have a fair bit of ice this year. **These observations were made from the car without stopping to look closer. YMMV

Mild temps have seen the ice in good shape. Travel has made the lower pitch picked out. Screw quality was almost all good. The entrance to the cave was very drippy. I had waterproof pants and that was a good thing. My jacket wasn't a hard shell but held up ok, a hard shell would have been nicer. Most of the climb was reasonably dry though. Approach is fully packed down and all snow bridges on the creek were in good shape. 100+ hikers were on the trail throughout the day looking for their Insta-famous waterfall pics. Unfortunately many of them are unaware of the dangers of falling ice and will walk below you oblivious to the serious hazard falling ice poses to their life and limb. Someone is going to get hurt.

Skied the NE slopes of kid lookout. We had extensive whumpfing in open areas. So we put a track through the trees to the north and found nothing but little Cliffs and alder bushes. The guts in the shade skied well, but we would occasionally hit grass under the new snow. There are several sets of snowshoe tracks in the area. Also lots of cougar tracks and we have spotted a den...didn't stick around. All things considered would not recommend for skiing.

Approach: Parking lot was mostly unplowed with knee deep snow covering where you should park. Same knee deep snow up the fire road too. Someone had punched some tracks after the storm but wind had partially filled them in. Breaking trail took twice as long as the usual hike. By the time I left it was much better from about 6 parties in ETC. I broke trail to Chantilly and called it a day, others busted through from there but I didn't care to go take a look at conditions. A couple of holes to keep an eye for as you cross the creek but generally not bad. Chantilly Falls: Getting to the ice was more vertical wallowing. More snow accumulated than anticipated. While this climb doesn't have overhead hazard, it didn't escape my notice that the slopes between the lower and upper ice would have enough to bury a person if they slid. Fortunately it seemed fairly stable and took a bit of work to punch upward. Lower ice was good but had some ice lensing much of which will be gone now. Upper ice is still relatively narrow but decently thick so would probably take screws. It was a little featured so some hooks and good feet on somewhat steeper ice than you'd expect from a W2. Nearby: Noted quite a few peaks such as Kidd had spindrift plumes through the day. In the valley bottom it was a chilly breeze but obviously windy up high and moving the new storm snow around.

The ice is nice and fat and climbs well. We had moderate wind with strong gusts and observed spin drifts and wind transport. There is avalanche debris at base of climb from previous seasons, no new avalanche activity observed. Walk off climbers left through the trees with some route finding did not present any issues.

Hiked most of the approach to Kidd Falls. Barely any snow on the approach. Evidence of an avalanche at the base of the climb, no idea of timing or how high up it came from. Ice looked climbable.

Climbed and top roped the first pitch. Conditions were tricky and hard for the grade with lots of chandelier ice to clean and a steep overhung section to climb over. Protection was available, but required active cleaning and selection due to the aerated nature of the ice. A shiny fixe rap station was found at the top of the climb, which avoids the old chained station climbers left and the numerous rocks bombs perched on the slab directly under. When using the newer station, take care where you descend as the ice daggers coming off the left side of the climb look unstable and show signs of melting away from the rock. It was dripping heavily in certain areas behind the cave. Care is needed on the steep approach and descent. It was quite slippery with a few cm of snow over juniper bushes and frozen dirt to try and kick into.

Tasting Fear - takes a couple ropes plus the easier ice to the left. Bridge to Far - first pitch barely touching down on the right. Not yet ready but upper pitches look better condition from the trail. Mountain Dew - visible from the highway but not seen otherwise so no comment on condition. Snow levels. Generally the area doesn't have much snow yet. The trail crosses a couple of avi runout paths but small shrubs and rocks are still showing. At Tasting Fear there was a huge pile of tree debris remaining from last winter. Someone asked me where it had come from thinking it was the treed slopes on the same side as the ice climbs. It was actually brought down across the approach trail and apparently quite a bit of snow flowed around the corner to the base of the climbs. Something to keep in mind when the snowpack becomes deep and unstable because initially the climbs don't appear to have hazard above. It comes from behind you. Photos show the climbs and the avi tree pile. We had a saw and used it to bridge the open water below the left hand climb. We also made getting into the canyon a little easier by removing some of the debris you had to clamber over. Those became the raft below the ice.

Climbed BTF today. No avi debris found, likely lots of overhead lingering. Climb was sun affected by 10am. Heavy solar radiation on overhead throughout the day. Temp swing from -14 to +5 between 7am & noon. No avalanche activity observed. Snow slopes between pitches stable. Kidd falls upper bowl heavily loaded.

No natural activity today. An older 2.5 skiers right of tree triangle. Looks like it ran a long way down the gully, possibly to valley bottom. Pretty crappy skiing, but a beautiful sunny day for a tour.

Some co workers and I attempted a hike up "Little Kidd" to see how the conditions were. We made track up through dense and spaced trees, but found the snow to be Whumpfing, with substantial fractures, it was concerning. As we decided to stop progressing, we did find the open grassy slopes to be pretty fluffy and fun, with no whumphing or fractures. The snow on the wind blasted grass yesterday slopes had much less Facets. Be careful in the glades, terrain traps and bad bad snow

Minimal snow coverage on the route at this time. Route was overall in good conditions. Trail in is ice covered and slick. Ice cleats are strongly recommended

First pitch is a mix of aerated and sun-beached ice. Tricky to protect and felt a bit unsure with the tools but there's good ice if you dig. 2nd pitch onwards is mostly good ice. Very little snow around but it was gusty today with spindrifts. No avalanche activity to report.