Gary_Yngve Posted October 18, 2004 Share Posted October 18, 2004 Climb: Enchantments- Date of Climb: 10/18/2004 Trip Report: Kev and I had high hopes of doing the WR of Prusik this weekend. We hiked into Gnome Tarn Saturday afternoon, remarking how nice it was that everything was nearly dry and there was no snow to be had in the Enchantments. We wolfed down a dinner of cheese ravioli, pesto, and freshly picked boletus edulis. Tasty stuff! Then the storm came. Our Betamid collapsed early in the night from the weight of the snow accumulating in the saddle (our poles were less-than-ideal tree branches -- we accidently forgot them at home). The rest of the night was a continual fight with the tent and the snow; we didn't get much sleep. By morning there were six inches of freshiez on the ground and no end in sight. We bailed on trying Prusik and hiked out in the snow/rain. Halfway down I realized I had left my water filter next to our tent, and it had been buried in the snow. Doh. To top things off, the tool ticketed us because we accidently put last year's pass on our car (this year's was also in the glove compartment). We quickly drove to the ranger station to protest the ticket with pass in hand, and we bumped into the infamous Larry* who wasn't being very helpful. Anyway, the weather sucked, and we amassed $85 dollars in tickets and lost gear, but I got some much-needed mountain air, and Kev was great company as usual. *Larry was sitting in some shiny new truck equipped with laptop, video camera, digicam, etc., for the purpose, as he said, of gathering evidence to prove in court that a car didn't have a forest pass. Who wants to bet that your fee demo dollars went to that equipment? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken4ord Posted October 18, 2004 Share Posted October 18, 2004 Damn dude, that sucks. At one point I thought of you when I was out on Sunday, because you mentioned that you were going to get out and try climbing too. Too bad you guys didn't get on anything and the ticket to boot. WTF they didn't drop the ticket after showing them the current pass? That shit pisses me off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted October 18, 2004 Share Posted October 18, 2004 The Enchantments looked nasty from the top of Devil's Gulch. It was blustery and cool even there. You guys were very optimistic to have headed in with that forecast. Time to tune the skis, eh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary_Yngve Posted October 18, 2004 Author Share Posted October 18, 2004 Yeah, I'm looking forward to snow and ice. Maybe some aid at Index before then. The forecast to us looked like clouds and scattered rain, but nothing as strong as what we experienced. And the model forecast was low reliability, so I guess we were hoping the errors would be toward better weather. Regardless, I had only five hours of mountain air in the past three weeks before this trip, so I was going through withdrawal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted October 18, 2004 Share Posted October 18, 2004 Regardless, I had only five hours of mountain air in the past three weeks before this trip, so I was going through withdrawal. Been there, done that. Hey, did you run into a group of 5 chicklets up there. A friend and her 4 buddies were going to backpack up there for the weekend. Maybe they bailed before you. They were supposed to go in via Snow Lake TH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredrogers Posted October 18, 2004 Share Posted October 18, 2004 We got rained off of Icicle Butress on Saturday and I remember looking up towards the Enchantmnets thinking how f*&king miserable it must have been up there. Yikes. We were glad to have 5 minute walk back to the car and dry clothes in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary_Yngve Posted October 19, 2004 Author Share Posted October 19, 2004 Been there, done that. Hey, did you run into a group of 5 chicklets up there. A friend and her 4 buddies were going to backpack up there for the weekend. Maybe they bailed before you. They were supposed to go in via Snow Lake TH. We ran into a bunch of fine friendly folk, but not your description. Most of the larger parties we encountered were a roughly even guy/gal mix. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurthicks Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 We got rained off of Icicle Butress on Saturday were you guys up there around 1PM? we drove up just as it started to rain and there were 2 people high up, near cocaine crack, looking miserable...so we headed to Frenchman Coulee instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredrogers Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 That was us. Good times, good times. We had no shortage of people stopping to look at the two idiots out in the rain. FWIW it's fairly easy to get off the 1st pitch via established rap stations. We left a locker and a #6 nut to protect my downclimb from the belay (something about soaking wet slabs made me want some gear), but that was all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leejams Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 Climb: Enchantments- Then the storm came. Our Betamid collapsed early in the night from the weight of the snow accumulating in the saddle (our poles were less-than-ideal tree branches -- we accidently forgot them at home). So did the tent sag because of the tree branchs or does this happen with this tarp and wet snow? I would think the golite hex or megamid would shed snow better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad_A Posted October 21, 2004 Share Posted October 21, 2004 Yeah, looked like it was going to get ugly and cold up there; we camped near Sprite Lake on Friday night. The girlfriend, my friend and I hiked out Saturday morning, and found the last room in town at a B&B, and woke up to pouring rain on Sunday. Sounds like the Enchantments alpine rock season may be over with? By the way, was it horrific descending the climbers' path with the snow on the granite? My pal Rob was the one who asked to leave; didn't want to skitter all the way down to Snow Lake Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary_Yngve Posted October 21, 2004 Author Share Posted October 21, 2004 The tent wasn't perfectly taut because our tree branches weren't perfectly adjusted, but it was pretty good. However the tent does have a saddle point on it, where snow will locally accumulate. And when it gathers weight, it pulls the two poles (branches) towards each other, allowing even more snow to accumulate. Once it collapsed once, we had two choices: 1) jury-rig the collapsed pole (branch) back to its former position from the confines of the tent, knowing it will collapse again 2) brave the storm and re-rig everything properly You can guess which option we chose. (for that matter, I was thirsty all night but didn't drink anything because I didn't want to deal with having to pee) The snow on granite wasn't that bad. You just had to get used to what would grab and what would shear. And a few times we slid on our asses down the granite slabs. That was all in the path from Gnome Tarn to Vivian. There was no snow (just dripping wet rock) from Vivian to Snow Lake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad_A Posted October 21, 2004 Share Posted October 21, 2004 The snow on granite wasn't that bad. You just had to get used to what would grab and what would shear. And a few times we slid on our asses down the granite slabs. That was all in the path from Gnome Tarn to Vivian. There was no snow (just dripping wet rock) from Vivian to Snow Lake. Ahh, gotcha. I think my g/f met you on the way out, in retrospect. Said she met a nice guy by the name of Gary on the way out (or, that the person with you referred to you as Gary, more accurately). Sorry it pissed on you so badly. Glad the way out wasn't as bad as I'd suspected Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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