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On Saturday morning
we had originally planned to get up at dawn and head
north along the base of the Crystal Range to Mt.
Price. Because Mt. Price is on a slight bend in
the range, it seems to hold the best late season snow. Of
course, it is also the farthest peak on the main
Crystal crest to get to.
Funny how that always seems to be the case.
When we poked our
heads out of
our sleeping bags at 6am, we knew we weren't going to get to
Mt. Price that day. The entire east shoulder of
Peak 9,686' ("Aarons Peak"), over which we had planned
to travel, was bare rock. Thus, we could either
endure a rock scramble of epic proportions getting to
Mt. Price, or we could satisfy ourselves with the snow
that we hoped would be clinging to the north face of
Pyramid Peak. Only having one day to complete
the trip, we chose the latter.
Just getting to
Pyramid, however, was a major chore. What looks
like a non-descript 2,300' climb on the map is in
reality an exercise in route-finding, slab climbing,
shrub-hugging and stream crossing. The granite slabs leading
up from Toem Lake to Gefo Lake and beyond were
seemingly endless. Last summer, I had called the
route leading down from Mt. Price to Mosquito Pass the "Slabs of
Insanity." Not long after enduring similar
pain on this route, I called it "Slabs of Insanity
II." Hard stuff, but actually quite
rewarding and fun in retrospect -- you know, Type 2
stuff.
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"Um,
Where's the Snow Dude?"
Sunrise view of Mt. Pyramid and Aarons Peak over Ropi
Lake. From this vantage point, the snow looked
very thin (and very f*cking far away). Once we saw the bare
ridge of Aarons, we knew we weren't going to get over
to Mt. Price and would settle for the north bowl of
Pyramid. |
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Above
Toem Lake.
Chris hiking up the snowfield high above Toem Lake.
Because of high snowmelt, we had to take a circuitous
route around all of the lakes, tarns and waterfalls to get up to
the skiing. We contoured all the way around the
lake basin seen here, then angled up the (endless) granite slabs up towards the peaks. It
wasn't as easy as it looks (and it doesn't look too
easy, does it?) |
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