the conditions ranged from warm to cold, to colder, to warm. wild and wacky May weather this year. how beautiful to wake up Sunday morning to see everything covered in a dusting of snow. we were always warm enough but loosing visibility was the motivating factor to turn-around. seeing how our tracks were disappearing so quickly made us realize we made the right decision. but i tell you, being the only ones in that arena that weekend was more inspiring than intimidating. we had a 14'er all to oursleves.
yes, thank you hvydrt for your beta! we saw old tracks that could have been yours near Red Lake. thank you Dave for using your GPS to keep us on-route. in the sagebrush down below it is all too easy to loose the trail. looks like we'll be going back to give Split a shot when the snow has melted her slopes, to expose the scree and talus. no matter what, it will be a sweet victory to gain her summit.
From the high desert to the Sierra high country we will go.
And you thought May brought flowers. Last night it brought snow!
Plus wind to blow the snow
The summit was not ours today, but our highpoint of 12,700 afforded us some nice views. A massive cornice.
Mount Prater
Back in the flats, the locals seemed nonplussed when we told them what we had been up to.
rest of my pix are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ryan.norma8 ... mptMay2010#