The ascent of the south ridge of Anklebiter gave us a mostly dry mix of hiking interspersed with some short easy scrambling sections. About 2/3 the way up in the trees we did run into some snow trapped in the trees but it was fairly short. At the summit it was quite windy so we did not hang around.

Summit Anklebiter Covid-19 - DO NOT TOUCH! (Would probably be OK? The new normal?) We did not touch!

It looked like the Bob Spirko route to Bearmat hill would work with maybe a bit of snow to start. With the aid of Bob Spirko's GPS track we found his bypass of the cliff on this route. There was more snow than it looked like! It was fairly short but very deep for me at times. Arnold did yeoman work trying to smooth a path for us - alas I am more portly than Arnold so was still punching through. - on one occasion waist deep!

Descending deep snow north side of Anklebiter - Ulli still smiling (at times I was almost waist deep!)

Snow slope we descended (you might see our track at full size if you click on the image)

Looking back up from our lunch spot it looked like it might be possible to bypass the cliff band to the south on less snow. Difficult to tell in this next photo as the grove of trees maybe hiding more cliff.

Arnold below Anklebiter is there a route through the cliffs above him?

Around where the above photo was taken we stopped for lunch just after noon.

Though some of the group had been to Anklebiter in the past the next "summit" (maybe "bump" would be a better word) of Bearmat hill was new to all of us. Scraps of trail were used following the GPS track to the clearcut summit of Bearmat hill. Clearcut by Lafarge? Initially there was a nice scree run off Bearmat but lower down I did n't pay enough attention to the GPS and we ended up more skiers left of Bob Spirko's track. Again we had scraps of trail but here was some bushwhacking and I think there is probably a better route than the one we did. All went well eventually getting back to Grotto pond around 3:00 pm. We had been amongst the first half dozen cars at Grotto pond at 8:30 am but on our return the parking lot was full and similar to other areas cars were spilliing out to parking on the road.

Thanks to participants: Arnold,Jane,Ulrike,Toshiko,Krzysztof from John for patience with the route finding and a spot of slow snowy trail breaking. We never saw anyone on the route all day so maybe a good choice with the limited options these days. A good group! Warm welcome to Krzysztof on his first Rambler hike. I will probably add some more photos later. .