Guinness
Active member
After a successful ascent of Mount Redfield on the previous day, I started out solo toward Cliff hoping for the same conditions. The previous night it rained for several hours and without any freezing temperatures, the remaining snow pack was turning into poor, unconsolidated conditions.
The start of the herd path was easy to find, which I followed for the first 20 minutes, at that point some wandering paths were encountered. The main herd path was located and I continued toward my Cliff adventure. The trail conditions were poor at best and I was often breaking through even with snowshoes on.
Reaching the first cliffs was not too difficult and quickly I was on my way toward the second set of cliffs. Here the trail conditions really broke down as the remaining snow pack was melting out over the fallen trees making travel difficult. The traditional winter herd path where you enjoyed staying above the blowdown was now impossible to follow, yet there was too much snow to locate the summer herd paths.
Upon reaching the second set of cliffs, I located the normal ascent route. Most of this cliff was melted out down to the dirt with some mixed ice sections. Once on top, I continued along the herd path to the third set of cliffs, which were not too difficult to ascend. From this point on, making forward progress became difficult. All the spines from the winter paths could not support your weight and I was averaging 100 yards every 20 minutes. After an hour and half of spruce traps, extracting myself then attempting another route, I stopped at the first false summit just 0.2 miles from the real summit and turned around.
It was before noon and I thought my efforts would be better to visit Redfield again where I had a good path from the day before. Coming down the second set of cliffs I managed to turn my head right into a branch and scratched my right eye. Damn that hurt! I lost depth perception and focus. Now I had to slow down and take extra care on foot placement until I was safely off the cliffs. I never knew an eye could water so much.
I returned to the Feldspar lean-to by 1:00 pm and TMax showed up shortly after. We decided to hike out and were back at the cars by 7:00 pm. I drove the 361 miles home, which proved problematic with my one eye unable to focus and VERY light sensitive. When a car passed me I had to look away. Today (Monday) it feels much better and I am able to "almost" focus again which would be a good thing since I write software code 10 hours a day.
The start of the herd path was easy to find, which I followed for the first 20 minutes, at that point some wandering paths were encountered. The main herd path was located and I continued toward my Cliff adventure. The trail conditions were poor at best and I was often breaking through even with snowshoes on.
Reaching the first cliffs was not too difficult and quickly I was on my way toward the second set of cliffs. Here the trail conditions really broke down as the remaining snow pack was melting out over the fallen trees making travel difficult. The traditional winter herd path where you enjoyed staying above the blowdown was now impossible to follow, yet there was too much snow to locate the summer herd paths.
Upon reaching the second set of cliffs, I located the normal ascent route. Most of this cliff was melted out down to the dirt with some mixed ice sections. Once on top, I continued along the herd path to the third set of cliffs, which were not too difficult to ascend. From this point on, making forward progress became difficult. All the spines from the winter paths could not support your weight and I was averaging 100 yards every 20 minutes. After an hour and half of spruce traps, extracting myself then attempting another route, I stopped at the first false summit just 0.2 miles from the real summit and turned around.
It was before noon and I thought my efforts would be better to visit Redfield again where I had a good path from the day before. Coming down the second set of cliffs I managed to turn my head right into a branch and scratched my right eye. Damn that hurt! I lost depth perception and focus. Now I had to slow down and take extra care on foot placement until I was safely off the cliffs. I never knew an eye could water so much.
I returned to the Feldspar lean-to by 1:00 pm and TMax showed up shortly after. We decided to hike out and were back at the cars by 7:00 pm. I drove the 361 miles home, which proved problematic with my one eye unable to focus and VERY light sensitive. When a car passed me I had to look away. Today (Monday) it feels much better and I am able to "almost" focus again which would be a good thing since I write software code 10 hours a day.
