el Nino dropped some snow in IHC Wednesday night so we took off with a bit of the white stuff leading the way and cool temps about 6am. when it was time to leave the trail and head to the slope our progress was slightly slowed by the Buckthorn and Manzanita, but in no time we were again on snow and looking up at a beautiful couloir.
can you say... SWEET! this climb was perfect! long, 2000 feet worth, steep (ok so it wasn't 50-60 degrees but steep enough to make you suck wind) and beautiful. the trees became whiter the higher we ascended and the snow was perfectly firm for cramponing. no rocks fell, just rime ice and nothing larger than a cell phone. there was off and on wind gusts to keep us from getting too warm and in two hours we topped out on a ridge between Tele and Timber and awesome views. Dave suffered a torn calf muscle on the ascent and it pained us to see him in pain. but ever the mountaineer, he finished out the hike with a wince and a limp.
it was windy on the Telepgraph summit so we took some pix and found a lower spot for lunch. We descended via Cedar Canyon which again was beautiful and onto the Chapman Trail.
a great day, on a sweet climb with great friends!
btw... Shin and Mark as i looked at my pix of Baldy when i got home i zoomed in on the summit and guess who i saw standing up there??? i wish it was a better resolution, but your group is there! pretty cool.
our objective
entering the couloir
Patrick and Dave ahead
looking back down the couloir
topped out & a nice ridge to traverse to Tele summit
Telegraph through the trees
go to my whole WebAlbum to see who's standing on Baldy's summit!!
Patrick channeling his inner Bolshevik (or is he just missing Taco?)
rest of the pix are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ryan.norma8 ... ouloir2410#
