In the parking area at Manker a guy, Nick, recognized me from REI Northridge where he used to work. Seems I spend too much time and money there!
We invited him to join us and the three of us headed up at an unalpine start of 9am. It was very warm down below and we dropped layers within minutes. As we saw from MVE's TR, the fire road is nearly unrecognizable and past the waterfall, there are a few areas that are only one boot track wide next to the downhill slope. We broke off for RR and immediately realized that the recent dump was going to make for an epic day of post-holing. No crampons needed since the snow is so soft and deep. About 2/3 up we broke out our axes as we ascended the steepest slopes. We did have one slope that sketched us out and we climbed as fast as we could while holding our breath. As MVE said, wearing a helmet is wise as the rime ice was falling off the trees in HUGE chunks and kept us walking around them when possible or as fast as we could under them, when it was unavoidable.
We broke for lunch just before the ridge to stay out of the wind and then headed up to Harwood. We found the top of the ridge and Harwood with lots of ice covered with a trace of spindrift that had blown over from the north slope. It was 2:30 so we decided to head down and reasoned that we might have a better chance of descending without setting off a slide if we stayed as far east as possible on the bowl. The thought of an avy was a constant all day and we kept a good eye on every step and slope we climbed. On the traverse over to the east bowl we serpentined around patches of ice to stay on snow as much as possible and again did not use crampons. Once we hit a good line we headed down into the land of the never ending posthole!
The creek above the hut is so deep under snow that you can't see it or hear it. Nick ran into some friends at the hut where we chatted for a bit and then headed straight down from the hut's south wall. We found ourselves sometimes on the trail and at other times all over the place. There is more than one boot track in the drainage. We never used our snowshoes all day either since we were on slopes so steep that we preferred to plunge step or figured with the narrow trail created by boot tracks it was easier to stay in just boots.
The snow is so deep & soft that post-holing was a constant. We laughed, we cursed, but most of all we had a great day on the mountain.
Nearing the top of Register Ridge
my camera broke a few weeks ago, so all pix are courtesy of Sara M.
link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ryan.norma8 ... Baldy12510#
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