Started from the Marble Mountain Sno-Park at 3 AM, road completely fine and plowed the entire way up. Minor ice on the last few corners into the lot, and in the lot itself, but overall really not a problem. Hike starts out very easy and flat for several miles, working through the trees until you finally get out to a clearing. We had no moon on a very clear night so we were hiking only by the light of our headlamps and couldn't see even the silhouette of the mountain when we got to the clearing. Snow was compact through here and didn't need snowshoes in the morning due to low temps, but needed them coming back later in the day as the snow got softer. Once we got on the ridge we put on our crampons and pulled out the ice axes, and soon thereafter reached a really steep portion that gave us pause and almost made us turn around, as we had never done the climb before and didn't know if it would continue getting worse or not. This turned out to be a short spurt of the steepest section of the hike (except perhaps the final push to the summit) so we were glad we had pushed on and reached the top of that hill (there's a monitor station here for what I believe corresponds to the 6562 ft forecast here). Sunrise was incredible, and a sea of clouds had rolled in over the valley below us. We kept on pushing and soon realized that the massive ridge that was facing us wasn't the summit after all, that was another 500+ feet higher and about another quarter or half mile ahead. While demoralized, we took a quick breather and pushed on, making the summit before 9 AM. Intermittent clouds had us worried, but we had a quick window up here before getting rushed off by a massive cloud/brief snowstorm. There's definitely some cornice danger here, so make sure to stay back from the edge, but if you're looking to get a view the true summit provides a bit more of a glimpse since the edge isn't higher than where you should stand back from. Descent was smooth, just wears on the knees a bit. There are a few spots were you can glissade down quite easily, and probably more that you could, but neither of us felt like it. I would highly recommend doing this hike early in the day, as there are a few signs here and there of avy risk and slabs that could possibly break free as temps rise. We had no issues though and the climb was great, saw lots of people heading up as we were on our way down, lots with split boards, which sounded like a much better alternative on the knees than our method of descent. Once back down off the ridge, we took off our crampons and ice axes and put the snowshoes on, making the few mile trek back to the lot through the trees. This bit seemed to drag on as we were just wanting to get home, but overall we made good time and made it back to the lot by 12:45.
More pictures on my Instagram page at @steven__bell
Comments