sobo Posted January 14, 2003 Share Posted January 14, 2003 Greetings, Keep your jets cool, people. Went up on Sunday to find the temps hovering around ~36F at the cliff base. Still in an inversion over here. First Ice on the Right was in, but wet, with the top-out very sporty. AT gear is NOT the preferred approach gear at this time. It was like walking with 20 lb blocks on each foot. Use snowshoes until it gets colder. Attempted to flag the route in from Spencer Creek Road (FS 1202/570), but stayed on Trail 609 too long and got screwed up. So we quit flagging until we were sure we on the path, which we didn't find. Ultimately, we ended up approaching First Ice on the Right from the right instead of from Split Rock Camp on its left. When we headed down, I found the old blue flagging I put up in 1998 (just the knots were left in the trees), so we began flagging again on the way down, using the old marks as a guide. After about 500' vert and a half mile, we lost 'em. Bushwhacked back to our earlier tracks and out to the FS Road by dark. So I'm gonna try to get in again this weekend and fill in that horrible half mile that didn't get flagged so the rest of you won't half to flounder around in the mush like we did. Currently using flourescent pink survey ribbon as the marker, and it's on the Spencer Creek Road approach variant (the second option from Alex's and Jason's draft Ice Guide - the original Larry Nevers/Yale Preston route in from back in 1998). Cheers, ...sobo ----------------------------------- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted January 15, 2003 Share Posted January 15, 2003 yeah when I went in with Larry he showed me that approach, and I didnt like it as much as mine (the first option in the book). I think erik and I are heading up there soon, will see how the other climbs are doing and maybe flag the approach that comes in from the left of Motherlode. Alex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sobo Posted January 15, 2003 Author Share Posted January 15, 2003 Strange, Alex. I think the FS Road 1202/570 approach is shorter. It's only about 2 miles on easy road and one mile off trail. The Milk Creek Road approach keeps you on the FS road for quite a while. I also didn't like the deep ravine crossing that you get to do going the first option way on skis . I preferred the beaver dam crossing over the ravine crossing. You probably didn't like the tree-bashing, tho. It sucks on skis... ...sobo ------------------ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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