(all pictures are low res, for high res click here)
After a great climb
last year, Chris, Diane and myself decided to
climb
Ruth Mountain again, however this time the weather was a little
schizophrenic . Just like before, we awoke at 3 am, and began driving
at 4 such that we could reach the
trailhead by 7 am. Unfortunately, the road was washed out, so we had to park
2 miles from the start of the trail.
.
As we began our approach to
Hannegan Pass, it was apparent that
it had recently snowed as the trees all appeared to have
powdered sugar
on them.
As you can see the
weather was overcast and it was not sure whether or not to stay cloudy.
The approach to Hannegan Pass is roughly 5 miles (not including the additional 2
from the washout), and it is all along the side of a ridge.
The snow was hard to push thru, and I ended up breaking trail for the first 2.5
miles, and then Diane took over
as I was really tired. Once
we reached Hannegan campground (4700 ft), we decided it was Chris's turn to
break trail for the final 400ft directly up to Hannegan Pass.
Finally, we reached Hannegan Pass after 4+ hours of trudging thru the snow. I
was tired, but happy, so I took a picture of my climbing buds while they ate
lunch.
Chris asked me if I always
time my pictures such that the subjects are making stupid faces. I said 'Yes',
and I took a closeup of him
. It was harder to get a
close up of Diane making a funny face.
. Chris wanted a shot behind
the camera, so he tried (unsuccessfully) to get me making a silly face
. Chris surprised me just before
our attempt for the summit, as he mentioned that he never wore crampons before!
Doh! Here's a picture of him learning how to put his crampons on.
As
I mentioned before, the weather was weird today, just before our summit attempt
the sky was still cloudy, but the sun was really trying to push out.
So we began our final push for the summit, and I began breaking trail in waist
deep snow. As we approached the snow steps to the first ridge, I found myself
breaking trail in chest deep snow, such that I was using my fists and ice axe to
break trail. After breaking trail for over an hour (and only 400 vertical feet)
I reached the top of the snow steps, the snow level was dropping and I noticed a
second layer under the top soft layer of snow. This was not a good sign, as it
pointed to possible avalanche danger - however, the sun was staying behind the
clouds so I figured we'd be in OK shape. In fact, the clouds got worse, and full
scale whiteout was upon us. This was a welcome site as we were able to continue.
We crossed the
ledge at the top of the snow steps, where we noticed a snow boulder that was
roughly the size of a small car. At this point, I had a bad feeling about the
conditions, and we all decided to head back down.
As we reached Hannegan Pass again,
the sun came out, and the snow began to melt rapidly. Snow that was stable
before the clouds parted, had given away to avalanches
.
It was now obvious that we made the right choice. The snow was so sticky, that
it would melt off of a tree and create these snow wagonwheels as they rolled
down the mountain.
.
Though we were disappointed with the lack of a summit, we were happy to get off the mountain without getting caught in an avalanche. The workout was great and the views were spectacular. We will definitely give Ruth a second chance later in the year.
