Road to the "trailhead" is very bumpy and overgrown. My Toyota 4Runner was OK on the rough surface - but it is scratched beyond simple wash and polish - seems we were first to drive there - through new growth - and the car will need a serious and professional polish job now ;)
Started from the "trailhead" at 6:30 AM. First 1.7 miles along Bedal creek were uneventful and wet. Turned left and started hiking up towards the ridge and the saddle between Bedal and Sloan peaks. Last year booth path is quite visible. Lost it just a couple of times - had to bushwalk for 5 minutes just before reaching the boulder field. Followed the boulder field to the top-right of it.
Traverse to the saddle is quite obvious. Snow starts at 5,100. Tarn is covered in snow and ice.Changed the approach shoes to the mountaineering shows and continued on snow. It's still a LOT of snow. And the snow is wet and heavy. Sticks to the boots and poles.
Reached the ridge overlooking the glacier at 5,900 ft. Roped up for glacier. Glacier is covered with snow. No crevasses are visible from this point.
HUGE avalanche debris field - 300 ft wide and 1200-1500 ft long. Big blocks of ice, snow and rocks. Some debris are clean and some are dark brown from rock and soil. It seems the avalanches were caused by a rockfall from the rock formation. Top layer of snow is removed completely - exposing polished surface below.
Spent a couple of hours postholing 1.5-3 ft into the snow. Too many exposed and loaded places. Reached the granite wall near the turn to the south side and called it a day.
Sloan needs another 4-6 weeks to be clear of snow and climbable.
Comments
dadoufergy on Sloan Peak
Great report! Thanks for the updated info. I have to ask, when you turned around were you at the start of the scramble? Was it melted out and accessible?
Posted by:
dadoufergy on Jun 29, 2024 04:36 PM