Mt. Gleason: 01-11-2009
Posted: Sun Jan 11, 2009 3:44 pm
Attempted to drive up to Mt. Gleason with plans to walk up to the summit followed by a hike out and back to Iron Mt. #2. Well, despite the road from Mill Creek Summit to Gleason being a mostly south facing road, I ran into some snow and ice that my car couldn't handle at the 7.5 mile mark.
That left about 2 miles and 900 vertical to go so I found a convenient place to park the car and hoofed it along the road through intermittent patches of snow/ice to the top. I could have taken the PCT but since it was on the north side of the mountain I figured I'd need snow gear I don't have. Besides, the road was sheltered for the most part from the steady 20-30 mph winds - win!
One of several places my car wouldn't have made it through (too steep and solid ice)...
Approaching the summit...
Come to a complete stop...
Ooh! Cowbell...
Aliens have landed on Mt. Gleason...
It even decorated the place with a little Christmas tree and snow.
For some reason the Sierra Club register is supposed to be on a slightly lower bump several hundred yards to the northwest of the real highpoint, but all I found was a geocache (someone signed in last fall and indicated they found a bunch of loose SC register pages lying all over the place and no register box)...
Elmer Fudd was here to protect us all from signs...
Grand views (Lukens, Condor, Condor Jr., Iron #2, and Santa Barbara Island way out there)...
More pics.
That left about 2 miles and 900 vertical to go so I found a convenient place to park the car and hoofed it along the road through intermittent patches of snow/ice to the top. I could have taken the PCT but since it was on the north side of the mountain I figured I'd need snow gear I don't have. Besides, the road was sheltered for the most part from the steady 20-30 mph winds - win!
One of several places my car wouldn't have made it through (too steep and solid ice)...
Approaching the summit...
Come to a complete stop...
Ooh! Cowbell...
Aliens have landed on Mt. Gleason...
It even decorated the place with a little Christmas tree and snow.
For some reason the Sierra Club register is supposed to be on a slightly lower bump several hundred yards to the northwest of the real highpoint, but all I found was a geocache (someone signed in last fall and indicated they found a bunch of loose SC register pages lying all over the place and no register box)...
Elmer Fudd was here to protect us all from signs...
Grand views (Lukens, Condor, Condor Jr., Iron #2, and Santa Barbara Island way out there)...
More pics.
