blacklab2020
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- Joined
- Jan 19, 2005
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My brother and I met up with MtnGoat on Sunday the first at the slant rock leanto. MtnGoat had been there since 5pm, while a delayed flight pushed our arrival at the leanto back to 1am.
We quickly jumped in the sleeping bags for the night. The next morning was fairly cloudly, but we could see the summit of basin just beneath the clouds. We hauled all of our gear to the ridge that morning via the shorey shortcut and set up camp in the designated spot between basin and haystack. After a quick lunch it was almost 11am and with light daypacks we decided to head for haystack and marcy.
Haystack was a lot of fun, snowshoes were required from slant rock to just below little haystack, but after that it was a mixture of water ice, averaging 1/4 inch thick, and rock. We threw on our crampons and grabbed our ice axes and headed up. The descent of little haystack on the southside was not as bad as I had imagined it could be. The ice axe certainly speeded our descent and added some measure of safety. The views from haystack were descent... you could see everything but the peaks of marcy and skylight... a cloud layer seemed to sit at about 4500+ feet over panther gorge. Basin was not in sight either. It was interesting to get the different lighting patterns under the clouds and the santanonis were certainly an impressive site with a rather golden glow cast on them amidst all the black and white.
After snacking on haystack we headed down, pondering whether we should try for Marcy or not, as it was feeling late in the day and we would lose daylight around 4:45pm. I was thinking it was sometime before 2pm and then my brother informed us that it was 2:50!!!
That was hard to believe... we didnt give it much thought and said... well that answers that. Then we had the idea that we should take the rest of the day, go eat well, rehydrate, and get plenty of sleep and get an alpine start in the AM and go for marcy before doing saddleback and basin that day.
After about an hour of sitting around in camp... MtnGoat mentioned that it wasnt getting dark... and a few minutes later dug out his watch and informed us it was 2:28pm....ahhhhhh what a waste of daylight. So our camp in the col had become well refined with a kitchen, table, set of stairs and a gate, while we filled the remaining daylight hours.
3am arrived and we got out of the tent with the hopes of summiting marcy before sunrise and maybe even catching the sunrise above the clouds. We grabbed our summit packs and a quick breakfast and headed for Marcy. We had some fun glissading down little haystack towards marcy in the dark... after trying to walk down the near vertical section backwards I turned around and figured there was an easier way... and man what a long great slide that was!.. Back up top MtnGoat and my brother turned around to see darkness where there had been my headlamp before... and upon hearing my laughing way down at the bottom, joined in on the glissading fun.
Marcy was not what was expected at all... it was dark, and cloudy, and blasting winds. It was a long slow climb... so it seemed. If we hadnt climbed the peak soo many times prior to this winter attempt we probably would have turned back...the visibility seemed to be between 20 and 50 feet, not enough to see the next cairn at times. With a death grip on the poles and an urge to follow the scars in the crusted snow of those before us we eventually reached the plaque on the summit. We summited at 6:05am. It was pitch black, winds > 45-50+ mph, and there was no hope of watching a sunrise. So after spending all of 20 seconds on top we turned to head down before all of our tracks were gone. Our descent route was not the same as our ascent, but seemed to be more in conjunction with the cairns on the regular trail... It was good to be back in the trees.
We were back to camp by 7:30am and had camp broken and our snowshoes on by 9:30am. It was off to basin and then saddleback for the remainder of the day.
Basin was its usual self, steep and icy. The summit was in the upper portion of the clouds so that the sun made it very bright, but with no real views. Occasionally on the ascent you could see point balk in the distance. The descent off basin was one of the most rugged of the trip... deep loose snow that seemed to slide with every step of the snowshoes.
Saddleback was very enjoyable... by the time we reached the base of basin, the skies were clearing out and for the first time this trip you could see all of the upper great range, the macintyres, big slide and even as far as whiteface. Portions of the lower range were still in the clouds and many clouds still hung low in the valleys. The route up saddleback was tricky. Mtn Goat lived up to his username, by climbing up to the summit with his full pack… the entire way and then by coming back down and climbing all over the various different paths to the summit. For my brother and , the lower lower ledges were a matter of placing the pack on a ledge then climbing around it, and then placing it on the next ledge, a rather tedious and sometimes cumbersome procedure with the ice less than ¼ inch thick on the rocks. Above this we decided to climb the corner rather than traverse out to the exposed slab climb on verglassed rock. The corner was WI2 and this was where we dropped packs and brought out the haul rope. For this section and the upper section the climbing we hauled our packs.
The last day (Wed) we traversed out over gothics, armstrong, upper and lower wolfjaw before dropping back down to the garden. We had clear skies and the sunrise from gothics was awesome... interesting lighting on the upper portion of the great range.
All in all it was a great trip... full conditions and we got lucky with the temperatures being rather mild, for the daks this time of year.
Pictures will be posted soon.
Until next time...
Justin
We quickly jumped in the sleeping bags for the night. The next morning was fairly cloudly, but we could see the summit of basin just beneath the clouds. We hauled all of our gear to the ridge that morning via the shorey shortcut and set up camp in the designated spot between basin and haystack. After a quick lunch it was almost 11am and with light daypacks we decided to head for haystack and marcy.
Haystack was a lot of fun, snowshoes were required from slant rock to just below little haystack, but after that it was a mixture of water ice, averaging 1/4 inch thick, and rock. We threw on our crampons and grabbed our ice axes and headed up. The descent of little haystack on the southside was not as bad as I had imagined it could be. The ice axe certainly speeded our descent and added some measure of safety. The views from haystack were descent... you could see everything but the peaks of marcy and skylight... a cloud layer seemed to sit at about 4500+ feet over panther gorge. Basin was not in sight either. It was interesting to get the different lighting patterns under the clouds and the santanonis were certainly an impressive site with a rather golden glow cast on them amidst all the black and white.
After snacking on haystack we headed down, pondering whether we should try for Marcy or not, as it was feeling late in the day and we would lose daylight around 4:45pm. I was thinking it was sometime before 2pm and then my brother informed us that it was 2:50!!!
That was hard to believe... we didnt give it much thought and said... well that answers that. Then we had the idea that we should take the rest of the day, go eat well, rehydrate, and get plenty of sleep and get an alpine start in the AM and go for marcy before doing saddleback and basin that day.
After about an hour of sitting around in camp... MtnGoat mentioned that it wasnt getting dark... and a few minutes later dug out his watch and informed us it was 2:28pm....ahhhhhh what a waste of daylight. So our camp in the col had become well refined with a kitchen, table, set of stairs and a gate, while we filled the remaining daylight hours.
3am arrived and we got out of the tent with the hopes of summiting marcy before sunrise and maybe even catching the sunrise above the clouds. We grabbed our summit packs and a quick breakfast and headed for Marcy. We had some fun glissading down little haystack towards marcy in the dark... after trying to walk down the near vertical section backwards I turned around and figured there was an easier way... and man what a long great slide that was!.. Back up top MtnGoat and my brother turned around to see darkness where there had been my headlamp before... and upon hearing my laughing way down at the bottom, joined in on the glissading fun.
Marcy was not what was expected at all... it was dark, and cloudy, and blasting winds. It was a long slow climb... so it seemed. If we hadnt climbed the peak soo many times prior to this winter attempt we probably would have turned back...the visibility seemed to be between 20 and 50 feet, not enough to see the next cairn at times. With a death grip on the poles and an urge to follow the scars in the crusted snow of those before us we eventually reached the plaque on the summit. We summited at 6:05am. It was pitch black, winds > 45-50+ mph, and there was no hope of watching a sunrise. So after spending all of 20 seconds on top we turned to head down before all of our tracks were gone. Our descent route was not the same as our ascent, but seemed to be more in conjunction with the cairns on the regular trail... It was good to be back in the trees.
We were back to camp by 7:30am and had camp broken and our snowshoes on by 9:30am. It was off to basin and then saddleback for the remainder of the day.
Basin was its usual self, steep and icy. The summit was in the upper portion of the clouds so that the sun made it very bright, but with no real views. Occasionally on the ascent you could see point balk in the distance. The descent off basin was one of the most rugged of the trip... deep loose snow that seemed to slide with every step of the snowshoes.
Saddleback was very enjoyable... by the time we reached the base of basin, the skies were clearing out and for the first time this trip you could see all of the upper great range, the macintyres, big slide and even as far as whiteface. Portions of the lower range were still in the clouds and many clouds still hung low in the valleys. The route up saddleback was tricky. Mtn Goat lived up to his username, by climbing up to the summit with his full pack… the entire way and then by coming back down and climbing all over the various different paths to the summit. For my brother and , the lower lower ledges were a matter of placing the pack on a ledge then climbing around it, and then placing it on the next ledge, a rather tedious and sometimes cumbersome procedure with the ice less than ¼ inch thick on the rocks. Above this we decided to climb the corner rather than traverse out to the exposed slab climb on verglassed rock. The corner was WI2 and this was where we dropped packs and brought out the haul rope. For this section and the upper section the climbing we hauled our packs.
The last day (Wed) we traversed out over gothics, armstrong, upper and lower wolfjaw before dropping back down to the garden. We had clear skies and the sunrise from gothics was awesome... interesting lighting on the upper portion of the great range.
All in all it was a great trip... full conditions and we got lucky with the temperatures being rather mild, for the daks this time of year.
Pictures will be posted soon.
Until next time...
Justin
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No idea how long it will take me but I love descents in the winter!
