I joined SierraGator and MooseTracks for a jaunt up to the summit. At the North Fork Creek crossing we made our decision to head to the Main Trail vs MR as we knew the MT was a fer-sure option, and we weren't sure of the conditions on the Final 400. It was a warm week, and based on photos I saw of last weekend there has been a lot of melting, especially on the back side.
Large snow patches continue to start at Lone Pine Lake, making the climb to Outpost Camp more tolerable than the SBs. There's a lot of slop in Bighorn Park and the ascent to Mirror Lake is clear. On the bench above and south of Mirror Lake, the trail pretty much disappeared for the remainder of the way to Trail Camp, with the exception of a few places. We followed the snow packed Consultation Lake drainage all the way up to Trail Camp... my first time an this fun route. The lake at Trail Camp is still frozen with the exception of the outlet. There was noticeable thawing from the time we passed it in the morning and the time we passed it in the afternoon. There are a number of dry camp spots available. Leaving Trail Camp we found plenty of posthole potential on the flats. We had heard horror stories the day before from people saying they were postholing up to their waist going up the chute, but we did not find this to be the case on Saturday. We left Trail Camp @0800 and had soft, firm snow on the chute... climbing the chute in snow was another first for me!
There were snow drifts on the backside, but again, there's been a lot of melt this past week and most of them had at least a single boot track of dirt available as a bypass. We did not use crampons on those that did not have bypass... just paid attention.
It was absolutely gorgeous on the summit. Jim and Laura tagged Muir on the way down and we all glissaded down the chute... another first! I was stoked to have the conditions on the chute that we did.. for both the ascent and glissade. On our way out, we maintained the high route from Consultation Lake, dropping into Outpost Camp. Absolutely great day.
Robyn: thanks so much for the invite! Had a blast up there with you and Jim. I don't think I've laughed that hard on the way to the summit in a LONG time!
Congratulations on your day: I'm really proud of you. You accepted every challenge with gusto and enthusiasm, accomplishing that which you, at the beginning of the day, didn't think was possible.
Robin and Jim, thanks so much for another tremendous day on the Mountain. We laughed start to finish on this one, too many one-liners to list, all the way to me doubled over on the traverse. A bunch of firsts for me, too: first time day-hiking the main trail, first time bagging 2 14ers, first time breaking a bottle of champagne (dammit!!).
"Take 500 mg of STFU..."
"There's a sig-alert at the north fork junction..."
"Is the spring under water??" (Hooo... boy... get the girl some coffee...)
Robin, you were amazing. Jim, it's been too long, and we need to do it again.
Pics are still loading, but the slide show is here .
From the luckiest girl in the world: Climb Hard, Be Safe.
Kudos indeed, any trip with that much STFU is alright in my book! I'll only interrupt the regularly scheduled program briefly...
I'm curious to hear more about the route you took through the drainage above Consultation. I'm headed up next week and even though it will be cooler, I'm hoping to avoid the mashed potatoes scenario that appears to be developing. Do you have more info you could provide on this route? Where exactly did you deviate from the standard route and how is the approach to Trail Camp different through the drainage?
Thanks and Kudos again!
Reason has seldom worked because it has seldom been tried.
GMB: really not much that hard about it, especially since the boot track right now heads directly across at Trailside Meadow and on up from there. There are pics in my flickr gallery of the whole route.
The snow is melting off phenomenally fast right now, but I'm sure there will still be remnants next weekend. The traverse above TM looks not bad, but would be interesting if you haven't done much of that sort of thing.
Kudos Robin! plus you get bonus points doing it under the current 7-11 slurpee conditions Those snow conditions makes it extra challenging. Cheers, RickG
