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TR Mar. 1-2


Courtenay

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Using the great TR from the Feb. 24-25 ascent via Gib Ledges, a group of 7 of us set out to try it this weekend. Saturday was picture perfect, calm and sunny, with spectacular views. Enough snow to use snowshoes, though some people were heading up just in boots (complaining about postholing in places.)

 

The gate didn't open until 9:25 and we were told at Longmire Museum that we had to wait until 10 to get permits up at the Jackson Visitor Center. So we were unable to leave from the cars until about 10:45. One climber decided to turn back due to a sciatica flare-up; we waited for our partners so we could all split up the group gear. Another friend from another team was having asthma issues, so we took on more group gear for that party. We were later to Muir than anticipated, but were fortunate to find nobody else in the hut--so we went right to boiling water and cooking food so we wouldn't use energy clearing tent platforms. Saturday evening was calm and still, great sunset and starry skies. There were 6 groups planning to try for the summit: 4 via GL, one via ID. We'd had 2 people in our party (who knew the GL route) leave the climb at the last minute, so we thought we'd strike out on our own and try ID via Cadaver Gap, which meant we'd be breaking trail. At this point my goal was just to see how far we could get before the anticipated front would come in -- would it be noon? 3? 6? At 3:30 a.m. Sunday we could see the early GL team heading for the ledges; still calm at that hour, and clear. Two of our group stayed behind, so a few minutes before 5, 4 of us headed for Cadaver Gap.

 

The new snowfall was perhaps a foot deep, though in places it was merely 1-2 inches where the snow had been scoured away, and where spindrift had collected we were moving through knee-deep or worse snow. Near the top of Cadaver Gap the wind had scoured most of the snow away, and as we made our way up through the ice blocks the sun came up casting a beautiful glow over everything. Still no wind. Until 7 a.m. sharp (at about 11,200') when we were on front points and the spindrift started swooping down from the upper part of the mountain, right into our faces. Within minutes we'd downclimbed to the deeper, softer snow and cast glances up and left to the GL route to find one twosome making their way quickly down and the 3-some inching left rather than right -- all teams were turning back. No summits that day. Amazing how the mountain can go from peacefully still to hostile in merely minutes. By the time we retreated to Camp Muir the winds must have been 30-40 mph, with clouds in the valley moving quickly uphill, and spindrift whipping around everywhere. Even as we packed within the confines of the hut, we could hear the winds picking up minute by minute. After we'd packed up and started heading down (9 a.m.) we encountered white-out conditions from about 9200' to just below Pan Point. Some of us opted to use crampons going down the now-icy (from new precip Sunday morning over melted snow Sat) approach to Pan Point; others downclimbed in their snowshoes. By the time we reached the cars it was raining/snowing; a pair had been heading up to ski, an RMI group was going up for winter mountaineering, but nowhere NEAR the hordes up there on Saturday. A grand winter adventure.

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