I went back with a friend today to do Bandera Mountain after doing Defiance two days before. Beautiful weather today and decent snow conditions. Snow became consistent at around 3800 feet. We decided to go almost straight up the main snowfield before the ridge leading to Little Bandera. We made it to the top of Little Bandera in 2 hours and began the ridge traverse to Bandera at about 9AM.
Watch out for cornices on the ridge! There was a well established set of tracks right on the edge of the ridge, on top of some pretty sizable cornices. We even saw significant cracks in the snow/ice below where well established tracks (likely from this past weekend) were. This path didn't safe very safe so we elected to stay a ways below the ridge for most of the traverse. Made it to the top of Bandera at 9:45. The views were spectacular so we stayed for about 45 minutes.
Two and a bit hours later after some glissading we were back at the car.
Used: Microspikes, Snowshoes, Trecking poles.
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