We did a car to car trip up the DC. Total time including some long breaks was about 20 hours. It was all four of our first time on the mountain. We had absolutely perfect weather - almost no wind until near the summit crater and even then only 20-30mph. I did the vast majority of the climb in a sun hoody and fleece. We had the privilege of watching a perfect sunrise from Ingraham flats and the bottom of the cleaver, and some amazing stars including the milky way and neowise comet.
We left the cars at about 9PM, and I split up with the rest of my climbing party upon return to muir while they sorted out some gear and glissaded/stumbled down from muir ending up at my car at about 5PM.
There was one other party on the route (two women who were on their second ascent as part of the infinity loop!!) and they were the only party we saw on the summit - though we didn't stick around long enough to sign the register so I'm not sure if anyone else summited yesterday. Quite the contrast to reading about conga lines on clear summer days.
Route is in amazing shape, and has been developed a lot since the most recent reports we read. Guides are starting to take clients up this week I believe, and have wanded out an entire route to the summit. We departed from this route and veered onto the Nisqually glacier based on some prior beta - I wouldn't recommend this. We followed the wanded route down from the summit and found it much easier. Some beta on the cleaver - midway up you'll hit a point where you can choose between continuing the scramble and heading up some switchbacks in steep snow and I'd strongly recommend the snow if conditions are good. Crevasses were in good shape. I was expecting sketchier crossings based on some recent reports but there were just a couple of places of stepping over a small gap or quickly getting across solid snow bridges - the guides have not put any fixed hardware on the route beyond a couple of running belays we opted not to use. We heard some rockfall in the bowling alley on our way down and were baking pretty well on the glaciers lower on the mountain in the afternoon sun with no breeze.
Our party was strong and we did make it, but this is a ton of elevation to do in a day and with getting off route we added quite a bit of work to it. Sea level-14k is also a lot, and we were all struggling for air by the summit with one member of the party getting some pretty bad altitude symptoms until we got back down to the top of the cleaver.
The hike up to camp muir is mostly a blur in my memory, but will require lots of snow travel almost immediately after leaving the parking lot at paradise.
The hike up to camp muir is mostly a blur in my memory, but will require lots of snow travel almost immediately after leaving the parking lot at paradise.
Comments