Greetings to all my imaginary blog readers. After reading many mountaineering books, whose authors are always writing in climbing journals, I have decided to dust off the old blog!
Just to get started a few pics of recent purchases to get ready...
Now with the necessary equipment its time to find a snow field.
Brian and I decided on the Angel of Shavano route, an easy snow climb with the snow steepness not exceeding 30 degrees. Here we are at the trail head off of the Colorado trail. We left denver on June 3, 2011.
We arrived here near the base of the snow climb in about an hour. You can make out our route just to the left of the trees, in the middle of the photo.
Brian pondering the snow line just ahead of us
Brian and I decided on the Angel of Shavano route, an easy snow climb with the snow steepness not exceeding 30 degrees. Here we are at the trail head off of the Colorado trail. We left denver on June 3, 2011.
We decided to backpack into a camp site along the trail with hopes of gaining the summit via the snow route in the morning. I spent hours fiddling with the computer at home prior to the trip, trying to get my GPS to work with my computer. After all sorts of nerdy stuff (partitioning, software updating) I was finally able to get trail way points from 14ers.com to upload onto my GPS! And to think I have only had the GPS for 5 years... We finally got our camp site at waypoint 68, about 1.8 miles from the trail head, 11,200 feet. Camp was great, small streams on both sides of our perfectly flat tent platform.
We got to into the tent finishing dinner and the usual post meal beverage of hot chocolate at an unusually early time for us of 10 pm. I set the alarm for 4:15, to get an early start up the snow field, to ensure good hard snow. I awoke at 2am and had to get up and relieve myself from all my pre-summit hydration prep. I went outside in the dark, without the following; clothes (only boxers), headlamp, shoes. My third step outside the tent, I got blown off balance and stepped on one of the aluminum tent stakes with my bare feet. Once I got back inside my tent, I found the head lamp and confirmed that I cut the bottom of my foot pretty good. Content that the cut was not bleeding too badly, I went back to sleep. I finally got out of bed about 5:15-5:30 am, deciding that getting up prior to sunrise was not an option since brian forgot his warm coat. After much deliberation on my part with mending my foot, I decided that I would continue the climb regardless of my sore foot. After morning coffee, we were off towards the snow about 7 AM.
After pitching the tent, we had our usual fabulous dinner consisting of couscous, snow peas and sausage, with cashews.
We got to into the tent finishing dinner and the usual post meal beverage of hot chocolate at an unusually early time for us of 10 pm. I set the alarm for 4:15, to get an early start up the snow field, to ensure good hard snow. I awoke at 2am and had to get up and relieve myself from all my pre-summit hydration prep. I went outside in the dark, without the following; clothes (only boxers), headlamp, shoes. My third step outside the tent, I got blown off balance and stepped on one of the aluminum tent stakes with my bare feet. Once I got back inside my tent, I found the head lamp and confirmed that I cut the bottom of my foot pretty good. Content that the cut was not bleeding too badly, I went back to sleep. I finally got out of bed about 5:15-5:30 am, deciding that getting up prior to sunrise was not an option since brian forgot his warm coat. After much deliberation on my part with mending my foot, I decided that I would continue the climb regardless of my sore foot. After morning coffee, we were off towards the snow about 7 AM.
We arrived here near the base of the snow climb in about an hour. You can make out our route just to the left of the trees, in the middle of the photo.
Brian pondering the snow line just ahead of us
To the left, self pic right before putting on my crampons
To the right, looking up the snow field where I put on the crampons for their first use!
Overall, we had a great climb. total millage about 8 miles, 4500 feet elevation. Total climbing time on summit day was 9 hours, including taking camp apart after the summit. This experience has made me crave more snow climbs in the future.
Stay tuned for the next adventure installment...
Thanks for reading.
Dana
Brian climbing behind me in my foot steps. It was right about here that the slope of the climb started to increase. Prior to this spot, brian had no difficulty with his footing(without crampons). I had no difficulty with crampons just walking up slope. Right after this picture was taken. Brian asked with urgency in his voice, for me to kick my steps flatter into the slope. This helped keep brain from sliding back down with each step.
My self portrait on the summit. Weather was good, pics are hazy from the forest fire in Arizona. I took the opportunity to recalibrate my GPS on the summit.
Looking back at the slope we climbed up and glissaded down. If you look closely, you can see the track left by the butts of climbers on the way down, going right down the middle of the field. We glissaded the angel's head and body. The glissade was great fun, except for brian getting his foot stuck in the snow in the middle of the route for 20 minutes or so, requiring us both to dig his foot out.
Overall, we had a great climb. total millage about 8 miles, 4500 feet elevation. Total climbing time on summit day was 9 hours, including taking camp apart after the summit. This experience has made me crave more snow climbs in the future.
Stay tuned for the next adventure installment...
Thanks for reading.
Dana
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