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Stormy Sawtooth. As
we arrived Friday night, the entire sawtooth ridge
area was getting rained on. The clouds hung over
the range for the entire weekend, affording only
infrequent views of the high peaks. |
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The search for snow.
We started hiking up the Horse Creek trail from Twin
Lakes at a reasonable 8:30am. We weren't in any
hurry to get out into the rain. Here, some of
the spires of the Cleaver become visible through the
haze as we hit the first meadow climbing out of the
Twin Lakes valley (photo: E. Branham) |
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Snow at last. Reaching the horsetail
falls (background), we finally find some snow.
Unfortunately, the snow was not plentiful enough to
ski on, but just enough to cause us to posthole in
places. Ugh. (photo: E. Branham) |
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I... must... ski....
We finally put skis on at the top of the falls and
played "connect the dots" with the patches of snow.
Here, EB takes advantage of the fact that he's on my
four year old rock skis. |
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Hoover Wilderness.
Just past the boundary of the wilderness area (at
around 8,400'), the snowline became more consistent
and we were able to finally put the skis on and keep
them on. Here, EB tours up the Horse Creek
valley. The Dragtooth is at upper right, and
Matterhorn Peak can be seen in the background just to
the left of the Dragtooth. The East Couloir is
the small sliver of snow left of the pointy peak. |
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Climbing the "hourglass".
Halfway up the canyon, you reach a steep hill holding
an hourglass shape of snow. In the summer, this
is a talus pile and is very tedious to ascend.
With a coating of snow, however, the climb up to the
top is relatively easy. (photo: E.
Branham) |
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Looking down the canyon.
From the top of the hourglass hill, we had this view
back down Horse Creek Canyon. Robinson Peak is
in the clouds at the back of the photo. Twin
Lakes lies at the foot of the peak. |
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