There must be more ice finally forming because the Ranger Creek area was not its usual over-crowded self today; only three parties including us. As suspected R&D is a hooked-out peg board; no swinging necessary. We climbed the newly formed pitch upper pitch, erroneously thinking it may have not seen an ascent yet. Our delusions of grandeur were nurtured by the fresh ice with nary a hook to be seen--silly us. Of course, there was a V-thread at the top. There is quite a bit of water flowing from the rock overlap, which has covered up all sings of the previous passage. Nonetheless, it was a pleasant romp turning R&D into a two-pitch climb. This second pitch goes at WI3 and maybe add an R to that grade since it is a little thin off the ledge. This will most likely keep thickening as long as the tap stays on. The photo shows R&D (you can see the hooks from here) and the aforementioned second pitch up.
HS below the climb is still below threshold amounts. The strong winds from the past week are evident in that all fetches are stripped to scree. Stiff winds slabs are surely lurking above the routes but should pose little threat until the next major inputs (i.e. snow, wind or temps).
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