Anyone else aiming for 14,411 this weekend?

[CascadeClimber]

Just curious how crowded the hut might be Saturday night and whether there might be some other folks to help break trail to the Ledges Sunday morning

[JasonG]

TWO winter ascents in the same year??!! Inconceivable!

 

I wish I could enjoy the window approaching....Sigh. Stay safe and write it up!

[KaskadskyjKozak]

 

There will be hundreds up there. You'll hate it! ;-)

[CascadeClimber]

Gotta try to get the February monkey off my back.

[CascadeClimber]

I thought I was going to have the hut to myself for a while yesterday. I was joined by 5 or 6 Russians and a Spaniard, and until four others showed up at dusk, I was the only person in the hut for whom English was a first language.

 

Ripping winds calmed overnight and I walked out of the hut at 5:00 AM very optimistic. The Spaniard left at 2:00 AM and two others maybe thirty minutes behind me. Peak winds for the previous 24 hour period at Muir were, invconveniently, between 5 and 6 AM this morning: 57 MPH. With skis on my pack I was repeatedly stopped in my tracks climbing up along Cowlitz Cleaver, where it is usually fairly calm. More than once I was knocked off my feet entirely. The wind settled as I neared the shelter of Gib Rock. I sat at the notch where the Ledges start for as long as I could take the cold, watching plumes of snow blow over Gib Rock and down Gib Chute. This visual was punctuated by the constant jet-engine sound it was making. Long streamers of moisture condensed out of the air tailed across the Cowlitz, blowing through Cadavar Gap. With numb fingers and toes, I gave up after about a half hour of waiting for it to break. The Spaniard's tracks continued across the Ledges, but I never saw him on the upper mountain.

 

I was back in the parking lot at 9:20 smirking at the rapidly improving weather. It still wasn't calm, but it was a whole lot better than it had been at 6:00 AM. Alas.

[Al filo]

Hi, here the Spaniard.... I left the hut at 02:30 alone, as my partner was not feeling well, as you know until the ledges the wind also made me fall several times and I was thinking to bail, but, as I never did the route before and showing up at the ledges the wind calmed, I decided to continue, the ledges were in good shape and without wind, but at 12,600 came back the hurricane, I had hard fight against the elements, I was feeling good, but the wind took me down several times. At 13,000, at 08:00 I decided to finish my fight and descend.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Hi, here the Spaniard.... I left the hut at 02:30 alone, as my partner was not feeling well, as you know until the ledges the wind also made me fall several times and I was thinking to bail, but, as I never did the route before and showing up at the ledges the wind calmed, I decided to continue, the ledges were in good shape and without wind, but at 12,600 came back the hurricane, I had hard fight against the elements, I was feeling good, but the wind took me down several times. At 13,000, at 08:00 I decided to finish my fight and descend.

 

 

Nice. Good way to perservere... and backdown as well at the right time!

[CascadeClimber]

Excellent! Very glad to hear you made it down safely and it was a pleasure to meet you and follow your tracks this morning!

[Al filo]

Nice to meet you too. Also I was waiting about an hour before to decide to pass through the ledges or to get down... I hope to see you again in the mountains, or in your next winter climb to the Rainier, I have a pending bill there....(I like to finish waht I start)