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Monday
August 12, 2002
 After driving down on Sunday morning and spending the night at the
Cold Springs campground (free camping, some tables, some firepits)
we got up at 330am on Monday morning to get an early start on the
mountain, and get out before dark. We left at 430am and kept a good
pace up to the lunch counter. The trail from CS up to the base of
the Crescent Glacier is in great shape as always due to the incredible
amount of traffic that this side of the mountain gets.
We did not see many people at all, and I guess that is what you
get when you climb on a Monday. At the base of the Crescent Glacier
(Not really, merely a snowfield) you can go up and gain the left
ridgeline, or go straight up the galcier and gain the steep portion
via steep snow. This time we opted to gain the ridge and follow
the climbers path that way. Once on the ridge there are so many
established campsites available, and they all have such great wind
shelters. We followed the trail until we reached a nice plateau,
where we got our crampons on and made our way towards the Lunch
Counter (Base Camp). We were able to stay on snow all the way there
by some easy navigation and guessing. We eventually had to take
off the crampons because the Lunch Counter was pretty much melted
out, so we hiked to the base of Pikers Peak and put them on once
again.
The snow was perfect, and there were some great steps leftover from
the weekend so we had it made in the shade. We could tell from the
bottom that there was small patch of scree about 4/5 of the way
up, and made a b-line as far as possible to stay on the snow. By
the time we reached the end of the snow, our fears came true. It
was a long haul up scree hell. It was loose, steep, and just no
fun. There were some switchbacks, but not really, as they would
cave in and crumble under your feet. I opted to leave on my crampons
as I thought we would be getting right back onto snow, but it was
a good 30 minutes of this crap before we gained some snow again,
and that was only 5 minutes below Pikers Peak. At the false summit
we found strong winds, gusts of about 30mph or so, but it could
have been worse.
We found a place to seek some quick shelter and crouched down into
small holes to eat and drink. "RIP!" What the hell was that I thought?
"Oh shit! I just ripped open my brand new gaiters! " I soon forgot
and we moved onto the rime ice covered plateau below the true summit.
There was a trodden path that ran the first half of it, then the
rest was melted out snow in ice puddles and thin ice covering rivers
you could hear underneath. Once at the base of the summit, the wind
subsided as always, and we got on the scree trail and headed for
the summit. This trail is much better than the previous one described.
It is low angle switchbacks that are gentle.
We then made the summit plateau and made our way towards the summit.
The last 10 minutes heading towards the summit was quite entertaining
as we had an older plane that was circling the summit for some reason.
It was an older plane that had been refurbished or such as there
was an old ARMY insignia on the side. Once we made the summit the
plane made it's last turn and tipped it's wings 4-5 times right
at us. It was very cool, and we felt even more accomplishment than
before. We made the summit at 11:15am and hung out for an hour as
it was warm and we were all alone. We left the summit at 12:15pm
and arrived back at cold springs at 315pm. Long drive home and traffic
sucked. Burgerville rulez - make sure to stop there...... |
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