What a brilliant day for a ridge walk - sunny, 17o C at highway, a small breeze. The four of us started up at about 9:30 - a very 'direct' trail swichbacks up the west aspect of the ridge. There were patches of snow/ice on the trail, but nobody felt a need to use the grippers. We reached the ridge (and sunshine) in ~1.5 hours and another hour took us to the high point at the north end. A young man could be heard from far below (yelling to the bears), and he soon ran past us, saying he was on the way to Mt Hood.
The views were awesome both up and down - the rugged Opal Range peaks to the east; Kent Ridge, French, Jellico, Black Prince, etc to the west; and the mirror-like Kananaskis Lakes in the valley.
We had a nice lunch at the northerly high point. The young guy was there - after getting a good look at all the snow in the gullies on the route up Mt Hood, he (wisely) abandoned the quest for the higher summit.
On the way down we stopped again to enjoy the warm afternoon sun and were joined by beautiful green bug a pretty butterfly.
Back to the car at ~3:30.
Thank you for joining me on a fine day - Participants: Philip,John,John,and c/scClifton