Guided Spray River Falls yesterday, March 3. The trail is in spring conditions with sections of ice formed by the overnight freeze (I was glad to see Banff Townsite get down to -4 C overnight). We did ok on the trail without crampons, but I did consider putting them on. Most of the forest floor at this elevation has no snowpack, its frozen moss underfoot. We cut the corner to entered the climb's drainage. There is a good trail up the gut of the drainage. Several small, size .5, sloughs of wet snow into the gut of the drainage during this heat wave.
The climb is in great shape with little evidence of sun affect (it has a northeast aspect). Dry blue ice all the way to the last 20 meters where there was some dripping water. The crux is probably 1/2 grade easier if you climb into the cave on climber's right. The route up climber's left is interesting with a passage through a large ice keyhole, but climbing out of it is steep for 15 meters. We topped out the crux pitch into a second keyhole/cave at 58 meters on climber's left. A fun short pitch out the skylight and onto the top.
It felt like we rappeled into the 0 degree Celcius air at the base of the route at 1:30 pm. Moist surface snow from there down to the trail. A quiet day in that part of the Spray Valley, no avalanches running.
Happy trails,
Barry Blanchard
Mountain Guide
www.barryblanchard.ca