Good weather makes my second attempt a success. .
- June 21, 2011
- Team: Big Dan, Dylan, and John
- Summit: 11,050', 3400' gain, 3 miles, 3:40 hours
- Car to car: 6 miles, 3400' gain, 6.5 hours
Note: click images to see a larger version in a new window
Dave, Sean, and I got rejected on this climb last spring in a whiteout. So when Dan invited me to try it again on a sunny day, that sounded great. So I met Dan, Dylan, and John at 5am for the long drive to Mackay and environs. We drove up Arentson gulch and finally stopped here at this creek crossing. I probably could have driven it and proceeded all the way to the saddle, but it was a nice day so why not walk? Our peak (or part of it) is just visible. |
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After the cruise up the road to the saddle we did the grind up through the sagebrush, then followed faint elk trails through the woods to the flatter section of ridge to get some wonderful views. Then up easy scree to the toe of the steeper upper ridge. |
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| The circle shows the location of the car. Too bad the weather wasn't better. |  |
As we neared tree line, we started the discussion about the best route. Dan followed the dry rib. The red line shows the path followed by Dylan, John, and I. I have also added a red dot showing the approximate highpoint from last April. |
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I forgot to mention earlier that it was 50° when we went through Mackay. As a consequence, the snow was a little mushy. And fairly steep: I would estimate around 45°. |
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FRom the start of the rib to the top is about 800' gain. Here's John and Dylan removing crampons about 50' short of the top. |
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From the top of the rib, you can finally see the true summit. We followed the ridge and dry rock for a while, then hopped out onto the snow to climb the final basin. |
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| The final basin was a simply snow slog. But very scenic. Dan said it reminded him of the upper slopes of Al West. Only warmer. |  |
| The snow was not completely covering everything. We took advantage of that. |  |
We summitted in t-shirt weather, hardly a breeze. After a lengthy lunch and much friendly ribbing, it was time to head down. |
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| This is looking back up at the snow slog. |  |
And this is looking back up at the snow gully. There are actually three people in this picture. Surprisingly, the picture doesn't really show how steep it was. In the slurpy snow, we walked carefully. But it wasn't too bad once you got the feel for it. |
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| We returned by a slightly different route to take advantage of 1000' of scree surfing. | |
| The gully we descended was an obvious avalanche chute. The lower section was lined by these impressive snow walls. |  |
| And at the very bottom we found the remnants of the tongue of the avalanche. It must have been huge. Note that this is now just a blob of snow with nothing above it. |  |
A few minutes later we were back at the car, soaking our feet. What a great day to be in the mountains!
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