Intermediate Alpine Climb - Hubba Hubba

Morning sun light cleared the route of snow via a small sluff slide exposing beautiful ice. The gully above is certainly fat with snow but very stable and mostly concealed from solar exposure. The first pitch is the stiffest (WI3), a few spots of hollow ice found lower here. Three fixed pins supported a rap anchor/ belay station to end the first pitch. This is just right of the major rock escarpment in the middle of the flow. From there pitch two and three were more moderate climbing. Pitch two trends climber's left and then up a ramp slightly right to the next ice step. End of pitch 2 required an ice anchor. Pitch three heads up the final step to the gulley. Nice ice except for the transition to the upper snow slopes above pitch three. A bit thin and rotten there, but doesn't surprise me given the snow load insulating the drip up high. Pitch three was belayed from a large tree above a rock out cropping quite a ways climbers right. We climbed up the snow slope and then traversed over above the rocks. It was a rope stretcher to reach the tree.