[MCR] Ranger Creek & Evan Thomas Ice Climbing.

[Public Mountain Conditions Report]

Hey all,This info is a few days old but hope it's still be useful for some.Up both Lone Ranger & Chalice and the Blade last week at Ranger Creek, as well as most of Moonlight at Evan Thomas in K-Country at the end of last week.
Ranger Cr:Lone Ranger, as I'm sure one might guess, has seen a ton of traffic and the steeper top half of the route is full of good hooking and really fun climbing. The whole route seems to protect well right now, and we didn't have any problems sinking 16cm screws the whole way up. Chalice and the Blade was also really good and getting fatter by the day. The line on the left side was pretty wet and the ice a bit better formed while the line up the right side has some really good climbing through some funky, bulging features that also offered some really fun climbing. Both sides of Chalice were steep and protected well, a few stubbies in the first 15m or so but after that easy enough to get 16cm screws in again.Also saw some pretty standout windslab formations up there right now as well. Not a big concern for us at the time given where we were relative to them, but they'd be something to watch out for with the next big wind/precip event. It looked like the winds had been variable enough over the previous week that the slabs were in pretty variable locations up there. For the most part though, even in the upper bowls, and right up to ridge top you can still see scree poking through the snowpack, making me think that most of the terrain up there still doesn't really have enough snow sitting on it right now to produce an avalanche. It might though, be good to be cautious of how far up you climb when you're topping out, as you might find some of those windslabs as the ice kicks back slightly and the terrain has allowed for more cross loading in the gully features at the top of the routes.
Evan Thomas:Walked in to check out the routes Snowline, Moonlight, and Too Low for Zero.We climbed about 2/3'rds of Snowline, and bailed from there as it hadn't formed up totally above that. The route took 13cm screws in a few places, but you'd do well to have a ton of stubbies with you for that one. Ice was consistently detached from the rock behind it, and seemed like it took an extremely delicate touch to not collapse any of the features as we gained height. Anchors were tough to get, and the whole endeavour was pretty time consuming. I'd give this one at least another couple weeks before going back, be a lot more enjoyable then I think. Moonlight wasn't even close to ready, and Too Low for Zero had a fair bit of ice but would still need a pretty healthy rock rack + pitons to climb safely, looked fun though.
Be Safe and have fun out there!

Mike TrehearneACMG Alpine Guide & Asst. Ski Guidewww.yamnuska.commike at cloudnineguides.com+1.403.679.8080. 		 	   		  
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