Red Mountain -- BoeAlps

Where: Red Mtn through Commonwealth Basin
When: April 26th, 2009
With: BoeAlps BCC Team 7
Goals: Navigate through the basin to get to the peak (focus on map/compass)

We parked at the Snoqualmie West parking lot and had our gear on heading to the trailhead by 7am. The above picture is a view of Red Peak from the parking lot (photo taken when we got back to the cars because the morning was pretty foggy and we couldn't actually see the peak).

The start of our trail was part of the PCT and there was a decent amount of foot traffic and some snowshoe tracks as well. We crossed two tributaries stemming from the Commonwealth Creek and noted their possible (lack of) stability if the sun was to shine on them all day. Soon after, the sun became encrusted by clouds and we were left to hike in a gray haze. Fortunately, the clouds weren’t ominous.

Soon we were done with our hike across the basin and were climbing the ridge towards Red Peak. At this point there were almost no tracks; the only tracks from a lone skinner (a skier who has sandpaper type material on the bottom of his skies so he can ski straight up). Even this skinner was doing switchbacking a bit—but we went straight up the ridge. I led this section for quite awhile until the team took another break; as I was filling up my waterbottle with snow Kyle and Ryan passed me out.

I was feeling the effects of snowboarding and rock climbing the day before. I don't think it was really slowing me down, but my body definitely noticed the difference in effort it took to move, especially early in the morning.

The obvious ridge ended soon after and we landed on a very steep face of Red Mountain. Since the sun had left us for awhile, all the snow had hardened and was rather crusty. Even once you broke the top crust all the underlying snow was still quite hard. We started doing French steps up the mountain. This means the first person would hit the side of their foot against the steep slope and hope it went in enough to stand on. You’d then cross your lower foot over the top foot to do the same process of side stepping into the mountain. The first person tries to make the step as deep as possible, but won’t really notice if the step isn’t too deep. The 2nd-5th people will still find it quite challenging to step in the leads steps. At most there is an inch or two of a step to work with.

This is John Alley (an instructor) who is on our uphill steps. [He’s actually coming down our steps in this photo, but it shows you the steep hill and our side steps].



If we didn’t have our ice ax this would have been a ridiculous and unsafe attempt. Later in the day we saw 3 people attempting to go up the mountain and it was obvious they had little experience mountaineering. Near the base of the mountain they were already on all 4’s trying to crawl up the mountain.

The interesting part is by the 6th-8th people the steps actually become quite nice! By this time there is about 5” of hole for you to step in—I had no idea!

After climbing 1000+feet of elevation in these side steps we made it to the top! Although our pace had been moderately slow, it was almost straight up, so the first of our team summited at about 10:45am. The rest of the team was to the top by 11:15am.

We got a team summit photo, but not on my camera. For now you’ll get to see the shadows of the team summit in Todd’s helmet!



As the last folks were nearing the summit the sun started to poke its head out. Before we knew it we were amidst blue skies and bright white clouds. As we passed out many different types of summit treats (apple bread, 2 types of cookies, and my peanut butter chocolate covered bars) we basked in the glory of the sun. Since we made it to the summit so early, we decided to dawdle a bit to let the snow soften up for our decent.

I had actually been dreading the decent as we were coming up. I was wondering if we might even rope up for the decent. This would mean we would tie the rope to a tree, and then attach a prussic to our harness and the rope and slowly step down.

Fortunately, a mere 45 minutes of the sun bathing the mountain and the snow softened up enough for us to traverse down safely. Before heading off the summit we did dawn out harnesses, mainly because if we got halfway down and realized we needed to rope up, you sure didn’t want to attempt putting your harness on with the steep slope (not to mention taking your pack off to find the harness and such).

Ron and Bob (a guest instructor) showed us all how to down step this steep area. Basically, point your feet straight down the mountain, jam your heel in as you step down, and repeat with the other leg. Sounds easy enough, right? At first I could only aim one foot down the mountain, the other foot preferred to be perpendicular to the mountain, it felt much safer. The snow was softer, but it wasn’t that soft!

Most of us took a pretty slow pace getting started. We were in awe of the instructors; it looked like Bob was just running down the mountain! I believe he called his steps ‘controlled chaos.’ Mark was also really good at this downstepping although he claimed it was more because he had to use the outdoor facilities and was trying to get to a tree covered area.

Below is a picture of Matt stepping. The instructors told us crouching like an old man was helpful because then you were able to get your weight over your feet.



[Later] Matt and I found that standing up a little straighter but still keeping your weight balanced over your feet, gave us more control.

At one point or another, almost all of us had to arrest with our ice axes. Matt had the longest slip by far. Apparently his waterbottle (attached on the side to his pack), flipped up and kept getting in the way of the ax getting a good grip in the snow. He said his fall was quite a scare. Below you can see how far Matt slid compared to the photo above. [He was quite a bit above the main group, and by the time he stopped he was a little below them]. I think he was just trying to get down the mountain quicker!!



I arrested twice (I think I gained too much confidence and started to speed up my steps and slipped); both times I only slid about 2 feet before coming to a stop.

It’s unfortunate that the image is flattened, but this is 1000ft+ of elevation gain that we just came down.



After we got down the steep pitch we realized it was still pretty early, so we had time to practice some other skills. We simulated two different types of belays, the boot-ax belay and a carabineer-ax belay. Below is pictures of Ron demonstrating footing of the boot-ax and how you stop with the rope.






We also did a Rutschblock test. This is a “sliding block” test that shows how much force is needed to make the snow slide on a given slope. Basically, you dig out a box of snow and you can analyze all the layers of the snow, and also, you can jump on this block to see how sturdy the snow is.

Practicing these techniques took about an hour and then we were headed back down to the cars. On the way down we created a few glissade shoots! And we slid down these slides on our butts (like you would a playground slide) and flew by the last few steep sections. The walk back on the flats was still enjoyable although it was slightly harder going than our walk to the base of the mountain. Since the sun was warming up the snow we were all sinking in a bit on these snow steps (even when we were using parts of our old trail).

We got to the cars at about 3pm—our earliest time ever! We had a quick group meeting and then were off to the North Bend Bar and Grill to make up for the lost calories.

Another great SUN day completed!

This last photo is a view from near the summit. You can see the Snowqualmie Ski Resort (where I have a seasons pass), our old friend Silver Peak (the bowl looking thing above it), and Rainier is sticking out behind Silver from the clouds.

What do I do to prepare for all this?

Basically I just try to stay active.

Here's an example of last weeks schedule:

Sat/Sun: Alpine Adventure
Mon: Climbed Tiger Mtn
Tues: Yoga, Rock Climbing
Wed: Kickboxing, Music Concert
Thurs: Yoga, Music Concert
Fri: Day off - I cleaned the house a bit
Sat: Snowboarding, Rock Climbing
Sun: Alpine Adventure


Music Concerts aren't necessarily workouts, but they also prevent me from doing other things like dancing or climbing so that's why they're listed.

Devil’s Peak & Devil’s Thumb –- Boealps

Where: Devils Peak & Devils Thumb, near Granite Falls
When: April 18th/19th, 2009
With: BoeAlps BCC Team 7
Goals: Survive winter camping, climb/rappel with harness/ropes

I woke up at 4:00am (for some reason this no longer freaks me out like it used to) to put the final touches on getting my stuff together for our trip and eating a hearty bowl of oatmeal.

We got to the meeting spot of the Verlot Ranger Station before 6:30am and were at the trailhead before 7 and were on the trail by 7:10 (about half an hour earlier than the scheduled time, and previous years). The other team (here on referred to as: Team Black / Commandos / Frat Boys) got on the route slightly before our team but we were all headed to the same camping spot.

There is a bunch of team gear and it was (perhaps unevenly!) split up. I carried my 2-person tent (to share with Evelyn), pot/stove (Evelyn carried the fuel), and team rope. This was in addition to my extra few pounds of summit treats and camera. Otherwise all our gear should have been about the same weight. Because of aforementioned weight I think my pack weighed more than 75% of the other people’s packs—and I’m the smallest!! I wish we figured out pack weight to human weight ratios. Although I found the extra weight to be a challenge (bruising my hips for sure!), I didn’t really think it was a total burden or crippling. I just kept telling myself it was only a few miles to camp! Once we got moving, about a mile in, I hardly noticed the backbreaking weight!

The beginning of the trail was just an unplowed road. Not very steep, but we were pretty much all carrying the most weight we’ve ever carried before, and our steady pace soon proved a little too fast for we were all breathing quite hard on this relatively flat trail.

After we got off the unplowed road, the trail opened up to a very green section. It was really easy walking with the fact that there was no snow on the ground, but the amount of downed trees and streams to cross added to the challenge level.

A few hundred feet in elevation later we were back to snowpack. The Commando’s had already created a bootpack through this area (not too challenging, the steps only sunk in about 6” or so) so we just followed in their steps. At a switchback we traded first place and our team made steps through a much deeper area. The snow was still far more pleasant than the last BoeAlps trip—sinking to your waist is so discouraging. Right before we got off the main switchback trail to go straight up the mtn our two BoeAlps groups combined in a single line and we worked as a large team to go up the steepest section. This meant after you kicked your steps, you got quite a long break, for you waited for about 35 people to pass you!!

I thought we made great time up the mountain. We got into camp around noon and while our team set up our tents the Commando’s decided to go to head to Devil’s Thumb. We were about done setting up the tents by the time the Commando’s had pulled out all their gear of the bags to head up to the Thumb. The Thumb is the further of the two peaks and Team Black thought the only chance of summit was if they did it the first day. We left about an hour after they did (very happy that we had time to take a break, eat some food, and set up all our gear) and continued on to Devil’s Peak.

As an aside: Evelyn and I set up our tent the fastest—by far.

I dropped at least 30 pounds from my pack before continuing (tent/stove/extra food and Matt felt bad about not taking rope up the original pass so he offered to take that from me as well). It made me feel so light I just wanted to frolic up the trail! We were only going to kick about 30 steps a piece, but I felt so good I kicked 70 steps my first 3 turns—and they weren’t slow steps either. I claimed I was just trying to compete with Leonard—our instructor who seems to be able to kick steep steps forever! My 4th turn I kicked 150 steps! It was an epic journey. I got to 90 steps and was like “well, I’m pretty close to 100, I might as well continue.” I was still feeling really good at 100 so I figured I could get to 125, when I got there I thought ‘I’m not breathing too hard, I could double my last steps if I got to 140” and then 150 steps just sounded like an epic number. At that point I knew I could continue but it would be with a cost of slower steps—and the point is not to get the most steps, but to be most efficient, so I stepped out.

The last 100 yards of our trip really felt like we were breaking trail straight up. Even with a few switchbacks it was still like you were walking up a ladder. When we got to the top of the ridge (minus the rock face actual summit) we were told to set up a platform for we’d be waiting a little while. We ended up waiting over 1.5 hours for the instructors to set up the ropes for us to safely climb to the summit and then repel down.

Fortunately the summit view was worth the wait (good thing there was basically no wind!!). We could see Rainier, Baker, Puget Sound, what we thought was Whidbey Island, and tons of other peaks such as Glacier.

The rappel wasn’t as exciting as we had built it up to be. We had two rappel stations and one of them was a free rappel and the other one was a rappel down a steep rock face. For the sake of time (since the free repel wasn’t set up yet) Matt, Ken, and I went down the first repel station. We were a little disappointed that we didn’t get the free repel, but the free repel was also with thicker and older ropes, so all the people who rappelled off of the cliff said that their belay devices kept sticking so it wasn’t the anticipated smooth ride down.

By the time everybody got down from the rocky peak it was just about dark. I handed out peanut butter fudge for a sugar high on our way down (aka our summit treat) and we donned our headlamps before traveling a direct route home. While plunge stepping we were extremely careful to stay away from our route up so the other team could use our perfectly preserved steps the next day.

The interesting part of plunge stepping is the faster you do it, the easier it is. It may seem like it’s taking more energy to frolic or prance down the hill, but the constant momentum helps keep your motion of traversing down. The unfortunate part is it sometimes feels like way more work to be constantly moving. So, sadly, as you loose energy, you’re more apt to slow down, and this slowed pace uses even more energy! I can only imagine how depressing it is when you’re only getting more tired, and the lead people only seem to be gaining more energy in their decent.

The other team made it to the false summit and then decided to turn back. Because of this they ended up getting home first. When we were still near the top our Peak we could see that they were setting up their tents, and starting their dinners. For quite awhile it seemed that these lights weren’t getting any closer until all of a sudden we could see full sized people and headlamps!

On our way home, Matt, Stephan (team lead) and I picked out our course. We wanted to get home in the most direct route possible while not stepping in our old steps and not falling off any cliffs (although that does sound fastest). As we were moments away from stumbling into camp we were blocked by a huge wall. It would have taken extra time to go around (using our previous steps up to camp) so we went straight up the wall since we still had ample energy. Matt kicked steps until we hit a completely vertical wall of snow. We ended up traversing along a super sketchy ridge (held up by trees, so if you didn’t walk on a tree branch (invisible under the snow) you would fall in super deep. We finally were able to scale the vertical snow wall and as we did, we found ourselves directly in our backyard (we knew we were close, we didn’t realize we were about to walk into one of our tents).

Ken and I quickly stomped out a kitchen area, and Matt kindly shoveled us some feet holes. Soon enough we had 3 stoves going and dinner was ready in no time. While feasting on dinner we melted snow to refill out bottles. Nobody needed a ton of water because it had been such a great melting day. The temp was above freezing and most of our walk was in the sun, so once you drank a little water you could fill your bottle up with snow and by the time you were ready for your next sip all the snow was already melted! How perfect! Ken also had brought some double stuff Oreos for dessert.

We went to bed after dinner and woke up around 6:30am. The other team was already packed to head to the summit of Devil’s Peak. We decided we didn’t care about the summit of Devil’s Thumb, especially if the Commando’s didn’t get it. We did walk up most the route, and got right below the false summit (to continue we would have had to rope up, which is a cumbersome process) so we went down shortly after.

It’s worth noting that the Commando team did NOT preserve their route up. Not only did they plunge down the same route up (making it so the route was now incredibly deep steps since the weight of walking down crushed the steps) but they also glissaded down their tracks!!! (Glissading is when you do a controlled slide down the mtn—so they left us a snowslide where their tracks once were). We felt gypped.

On the way down from the thumb, we also had a fun glissade (NOT on the uphill route tracks!). We packed up camp efficiently *cough Evelyn and I once again getting our tent down the fastest cough* and were soon on our way to the parking lot. The way down was going kind of slow, you’re only as fast as the slowest person on the team, so we unloaded one of the members pack and split up the heaviest items. Stephen got rope and I got the tent poles from the 4-person 4-season tent.

We made it to the parking lot slightly before 5pm—the earliest of any trip yet! It was more than a blessing to get out of my sopping shoes. (Interesting side note: if it wasn’t for my wet shoes I would have been super comfortable the entire trip, at times the wet boots were completely miserable—but, while writing this trip report a day/two after the trip, I almost forgot about the wet shoes altogether!). The main reason my shoes were wet was because I had the side zips on my snowpants open, and a few steep kicksteps let some snow down my pants that melted into my shoes).

We ended the trip at a Mexican joint and we all talked about how much we love our team. Our team is like a quirky family. Mostly we’re quiet, although we all interject with witty comments, and we’re all really laid back. For us it’s not about summits, but about having fun, enjoying the solitude, and company of our team. Granted we all really like summits, we’re not going to destroy ourselves or our morale if we don’t make one. We’re all happy to be outside and enjoying the outside air. [The Commando Frat Boys seem to have a different agenda, and especially in comparison, we love our team even more. They’re super loud, it seems that everything they say is in a screaming manor, and they have this holier-than-thou attitude. I feel bad for the one girl on their team.]

Hurricane Hill (Olympic Range) -- Andreas

Where: Hurricane Ridge – Olympics
When: Easter weekend (April 11/12)
With: Andreas
Goals: Build and sleep in a snow igloo!

I had a weekend off from BoeAlps so Andreas and I decided to take advantage of this by doing a weekend camping trip. At first we weren’t sure where to go because the weather looked bad and it seemed wherever we went we would be pretty cold. We quickly got past these thoughts and moved on to the thought of snow-camping and got the idea stuck in our heads of building a snow igloo!

We woke up at 6am to eat a hot bowl of oatmeal before heading north to Port Angeles. We got to the Kirkland ferry in time to for the 7:50am departure after stopping at the store for some bagels and nutella for our lunches.

When we got to the Olympics National Park Visitor center (actually the WIC – Wilderness Information Center) we grabbed a detailed map of the area. We neglected to go inside and talk to the Rangers. We continued up the pass 17 miles to the main parking lot for hiking Hurricane Hill. We noticed a few “NO OVERNIGHT PARKING” signs on the way up and were weary of our next steps, so we stopped in the second Visitors Center, conveniently at the top of the pass, to chat to a ranger about where we should park if we want to do an overnight trip. He said we needed an overnight permit, which can be retained at the WIC. He saw our sad faces and suggested we call down to them and see if he could issue a pass, saving us the trip down and back. Apparently the WIC are the only ones able to issue the passes.

After a bit of phone time, we had confirmed our overnight permit and Andreas went down the hill 3 miles to park the car—with a maintenance guy who brought him back up to the parking lot. Andreas was also told that we may get 6-12” of new snow overnight and that the pass may be closed in the morning (currently it’s only open on the weekends anyway). They said that we’d just have to call down to the WIC and somebody would come up to open the gates for us.

Excited for new snow, we were soon following the trail to Hurricane Hill. We were super surprised how accessible the area was in general. From the parking lot, the summit was only about a mile and a half away (although it was also rated as one of the ‘most difficult’ trails from the area). The first part of the trail was actually a road, presumably open in the summer. We saw (what we assumed to be) many camping areas for summer visitors as well. We started out with no snowshoes, but this changed soon after we got off the road area.

Going across the ridge we only saw two other female snowshoers. Perfect solitude with mountains surrounding us on all sides. The weather was also really beautiful. For the most part there were bright white clouds and the sun would keep poking its head out. It was really crazy how warm it got when the sun was showing. On the final summit push, I put up the lift bars on my snowshoes. I couldn’t believe the difference it made. Suddenly the hill was much more manageable. The hill wasn’t too bad on the calves before, but once I had the lift bars up it became quite pleasurable.

At the summit we ate apples and enjoyed the view. At one point the clouds departed once again and the sun came out and we had a spectacular view of the surrounding ridges. It was really strange to see some really lush green areas that looked as high as their neighbor snow-covered mountains. I can’t wait to explore the Olympics even more—their different types of eco-systems are really intriguing.

The ranger told me that at the northernmost point of the Olympic Wilderness area you can see puffins, seals, and sometimes even whales. I would be really excited to do a beach tour. Apparently it’s a pretty tough trail and you have to make sure to match it with the tide otherwise you can easily get stuck on the trail/in an inopportune area.

We had scoped out some camping areas on the way up and decided it was time to re-find them to make sure we had enough time to set up camp. Our goal was to set up my tent (so I could make sure it was worthy of camping next weekend with BoeAlps) and also build a snow igloo (for fun) to sleep in. We also had lunch of bagels and nutella – as Doug says, it’s like a high carb donut!

As I set up the tent and snow stakes Andreas starting sawing blocks for our igloo. Once I was done with the tent I realized that the circumference of our snow igloo was large enough to fit a large family and their pets. After a bit of re-arranging, we got a reasonable circumference and started building up. We built a tunnel into the igloo and soon realized the height of our igloo was going to be much higher than our original anticipation. We started creating a much greater angle with the snow blocks but by the time we were done Andreas could almost stand up in the middle—didn’t need to worry about claustrophobia! It took around 3 hours to build it. By the end we had a pretty good system down of packing in the blocks and sizing them correctly.

We cooked a dinner of rice and cheese tortilla’s accompanied with a bottle of hot apple cider. The wind was minimal and we were able to eat outside without getting cold. By the time we finished dinner it was dark enough that we were able to spy a few stars. We were also pretty tired so we decided to retire to the igloo. Let me just say that having a blow up mattress pad (Big Anges), with a closed cell mattress pad (Thermarest Z-rest) on top made for a comfort level that was easily comparable to a real bed (if not better). I highly recommend this combination for luxurious sleeping conditions.

It probably would have been a good idea to put a tarp down below these things to ensure no melting; the next day the bottom of the mattress pad was damp but not soaking. The temp in the igloo stayed above freezing the entire night (based on the observation that a water bottle left outside the sleeping bag did not freeze). Even though it was warm at night, we still think the idea of boiling water to put at our feet would be fun next time. Instant happiness. Also, a great bonus was that we had borrowed some down booties that made for an absolutely enjoyable experience.

The next morning we woke up and assumed no new snow had fallen since nothing had come through the vent holes. Alas, we had at least 4” of new snow on the ground! The tent had collapsed in the night and had more than 6” of snow on it. Had we been sleeping in the tent, we would have woken up to shake it off.

Breaking down camp seemed to take forever because taking down the igloo was quite a job. It was completely frozen. Just as tedious was getting the snow stakes out of the ground too!

We were very glad we brought snowshoes on the trip. Going back on the ridge we went through some huge drifts. It was also pretty windy, but still felt safer than trying to traverse the side of the ridge where it was much more slippery with the new powder.

Fortunately it didn’t take too long to get back into the wooded area, free of the gusting wind. Once we came upon the visitor center we were not surprised to find that the road had been closed. Fortunately, the visitor center had an indoor shelter area with a phone and rest room where we had lunch and phoned down to the WIC to ask how we should get to our car/ get our car past the closed gate. They told us to walk down the hill and a ranger would open the gate for us.

As we walked across the parking lot we walked through some drifts that were about 6 feet high and a moment later we’d be down to ½” of snow. It was very strange. We couldn’t believe this happened overnight. We got less than a mile down the road and saw a ranger truck. The ranger offered to drive us to our car and then open the gate for us to cross. We took her up on the offer and by the time we got to the car, there was no snow on the road, and it was slightly raining.

Overall, iIt was such a pleasant experience – all the help we got with getting to our car (before and after the trip), storing it at the correct lot, and making sure we got home safely was executed so well by the rangers. Although I missed out on the annual easter candy hunt at home in Vermont, I was super excited about the weekend. Such amazing weather the first day, and a really fun adventure overall.

On the way home we stopped at an Easter party and stuffed ourselves making up for all the calories we burned on the weekend.

Silver Peak -- BoeAlps

Where: Silver Peak– Snowqualmie Wilderness
When: Sunday April 5th, 2009
With: BoeAlps
Goals: Navigate to the summit

Already our 4th BoeAlps outing!

I was out of bed by 4:30am. All my gear had been packed the night before; I just needed to eat breakfast and prepare lunch. After a hearty bowl of oatmeal and preparation of my banana-peanut butter-chocolate chip-tortilla, and gathering snacks, I was pretty much set.

I was 5 minutes early to meet the group at the park and ride and there was only one other person there, I couldn't believe it. This person was Mike, an instructor who also helps out with the basic rock class and intermediate climbing class. Soon others showed up and all was well. Before carpooling to the trailhead we verbally checked that everybody had their 10 essentials.

We carpooled to the tiny trail head and after putting on our gators and helmets and going over the possible routes to the summit, we were on our way. The first part of the trail had been conveniently packed down by the Saturday summit crew. We left the trailhead at 7:20am with high spirits on a gorgeously sunny day with a 45 degree starting temperature.

The team is only as fast as the slowest person, so we had them lead. About a mile in, Ken and I took over the lead and the navigation. Admittedly, we were still following the Saturday crews bootpack, but we were still taking bearings!

At one point, when the packed trail merged, we followed the trail that went straight up the mtn. Very soon after we realized that this trail seemed very odd, for it had very steep steps, I also noticed that the footprints seemed to be leading down the mountain. After informing Ken, the current leader, we took a bearing and realized we were probably on the Sat teams decent trail. We backtracked slightly to a trail that a lone snowshoer had made (instead of backtracking slightly more to the Saturdays teams bootpack). We followed this for awhile, keeping in mind our current traverse should be increasing about 6 degrees in elevation.

We crossed a few bridges that were piled up with about 4 feet of snow. One bridge had a railing; the snow was so high that you could have walked evenly on the snow and railing.

Fortunately there were no epic falls, only slightly concerning ones.

Soon we came to an impassible gully. The snowshoer had walked across a tree we deamed unstable. So, we decided to traverse up, in an attempt to go around it. This “up” meant going up a 35 degree pitch, all while we were making our own trail.

It was hard going. When you're breaking trail, you break about 30 steps and then let the next person do the same. It is surprising how hard breaking 30 steps is when you sink in snow up to your waist. We never did find a spot to cross the gully, and continued upwards, at a very slow pace.

Some of our team are amazing steppers. Ryan and Matt in particular (the youngest, most in shape guys). Mike, one of the instructors, would actually walk along side of us, breaking his own trail, and somehow still always end up in front of us, even though he never got a break (other than waiting for us to catch up). He's super tall, so I feel when I sank up to my hip, he was only sinking up to his knees.

With such slow going it was obvious the summit was not attainable. Instead, we hoped to reach the ridge and get a nice view. Slowly but surely we succeeded in this feat, and at the top, three of us whipped out “ridge treats” (aka “instructor treats”). Last hike, we neglected to bring treats for all to share and sure heard about it. This time we were trippley prepared. Ken brought chocolate chip cookies, Evelyn brought carrot cake (that is edible for those with siliacs) and I brought decadent bars (condensed milk, plus tons of nuts, chocolate chips, graham cracker base, and oatmeal) and some no-bake cookies with peanut M&M's. Every single person that had a bar said they were the most amazing things ever. I agreed. Mmm!

After some photos and a snack break, and an explaination from Ron of all the surrounding peaks, we left the summit, going north (a different way than we came up). The traverse down was much harder than last Sundays.

The snow was everchanging. Most times it would be packy snow, but sometimes there would be lots of powder, other times there would be a combination, sometimes there was a crust. You never knew what you were going to get. Either way, the packy snow meant for really hard going. We still beat our uphill time by about 3x, but we should have been able to sail down!

Every trip many of us lament that we do not have our snowboards. Perhaps after this basic class is over we'll have to organize some snowboarding trips with our new crew. Near the top of the slope the trees were so perfectly spaced for a fun ride down the mountain (especially when you hit powder!).

The other teams (Sat and Sun) had similar problems sumitting. One team climbed Guy Peak, which in good conditions will have the team summiting in about 2.5 hours. It took them over 6 hours to get to the false summit. The team climbing Red Peak had to turn back because of extreme avalanche danger (going through a big bowl). Every team really struggled with this new snow.

Our entire trip was about 2500 ft in elevation.

At the restaurant afterwards we cheered to summit treats.