EISPIRATEN

Sunday morning I woke up and decided I'd go tram-shoeing to the summit of San Jacinto. Yeah, its cheating but who cares... I still had more fun than most of the prisoners up in San Quentin.

I arrived at the gate a bit before 730 to find it CLOSED?! THE HORROR!! The dumping of snow had deposited snow and ice on the cables so it took them until 1015 to finally clear the mess. Some dudes literally had to clamber to the top of the car and clean the lines as the car went up. The weather plaque said -5C on top so we were all preparing for the worst but when I walked out the doors it was a BEAUTIFUL day sunny skies and warm temps. Weatherman FAIL! But again, I'm not complaining.

Got the permits and struck out towards the summit. Our group had several sub-groups within the group. Ellen and Sally, Patrick and Ty, Carmen, Steve and Patti, and Fern by himself... because he apparently has the energy to RUN with snow shoes on. After a while I caught up to Ellen and Sally and pushed on in the new snow. It was gorgeous. Sugary, white, deliciously new snow. Eventually I caught up to Fern, who had come to the end of the previously laid tracks... Now the real fun began, and by fun I mean more like the kind they have in San Quentin. We took turns busting up the trail to the saddle between Miller and San J. At times we were post-holing through hip-deep snow drifts. My legs started to get the good burn going just as reinforcement arrived. Steve joined in the efforts as well as Carmen. We waged holy war on the snow until finally making the hut below the summit. We fueled up and got ready for the final grueling section to the summit... okay maybe not grueling but there was some spin-drift so that makes it hard. When I got to the top it was like entering a fourth and final dimension. There was no wind! and it was warm! The views were spectacular with San G and San A poking out through a vast expanse of white fluffy blanket of clouds. We were the first on the summit.

All of a sudden we realized that since we got such a late start it was getting late. I hauled ass and got into the tram station around 1620. Waited around a while for the others and then left. Good times. I had a great time, my thanks to everyone for letting me tag along.

PS: I forgot to take pictures so add 'em when you get a chance.

Since I had done "Leatherneck Ridge" the weekend before I'm going to go out on a limb here and just say I was completing the climb from the previous weekend - makes me feel better anyhow

As Zach indicated the gate was closed - not quite sure why they cannot have us up at the upper parking lot putting on our gear, versus waiting in our cars down at the gate - for whatever reason the logic of that escapes me, it's not like waiting at one location is any different than the other - if anyone in the "Know" can explain that, I'm all ears

For this hiker, waiting for one tram car other than the first one up is one thing, waiting for 2 extra hours was torture, I actually had picked up my pack and was headed for the exit when the tram car started going up, filled with Search and Rescue guys and as Zach said, two guys on top (strapped into the bucket that sits on top) one straddles the cable and sits facing downward with shovel in his hand knocking off sleet, ice and snow that the scrappers that are built into the tram housing to clear the cable of such stuff builds up as the car moves, he forces this into the bucket below and the guy in there then shovels it out. It's kind of weird watching a guy ride backwards while straddling the cable going uphill, he must not be too afraid of heights.

Anyways, the rest of the group convinced Ty and I to stick it out a little longer and I'm glad we did, we caught the second tram up, the first one was for season ticket holders only because of the delays mentioned above. Expecting a little snow to be dropping and having looked that the weather on various sites the night before and before I left the house I was pleasantly surprises when I walked out of the Mountain Station into slightly cold weather to realize all of them were wrong it was going to be one of those perfect mountain days in the snow - I had three hats, three pairs of gloves, extra socks, a down jacket, a pair of extra pants, three long sleeve wicking shirts, the short sleeve shirt I was wearing a one other short sleeve shirt and the wind breaker I was wearing. I ended up only wearing the one short sleeve shirt and the windbreaker for the whole day. It was around 40 degrees the whole time with slight breeze here and there, the coldest it got for me was the little break we took inside the Hut and when the spin drift hit me on the summit.

With Ellen (and her "miles of smiles) and "sister" Sally already out front breaking trail, Ty and I soon followed and realized that we didn't need the added extensions on the back of our snow shoes, a half hour up the Sid Davis drainage we were treated to a meteor shower as first Fern (mule #1), then Zach(attack), then Steve (blue rail) Pattie (nice to finally meet you) and Carmen (carmenator) all flew past us (anyone familiar with retrograde montion will know what I'm talking about) so we stopped made the equipment adjustments and followed the "super highway path" that was being created by the aforementioned racers . Having broken trail out there more than once it was a nice change to have some others out front doing that, that snow is the softest kind and therefore the hardest to do that in, nice work Ellen, Fren, Zach, Steve and Carmen

Everyone was well aware of the fact that a hiker/skier was missing from the day before, we spoke to the SAR guys, the tram folks and the state park rangers before heading out. Then we heard the helicopter making loops all over the park around 10:30 AM. Ten minutes later Ty and I came across two Mountain Rescue guys that were heading in from the night before. They were speant from the weather the night before and asked that we report anything that we find at the Summit Hut, which when everyone arrived was nothing. Since the chopper had been speaking over the loud speaker to a skier in the Wellman's divide area the two SAR guys and myself included thought that they might have found him, but upon returning to the upper tram station later we soon learned is was not to be.

My thoughts and prayers go out to this man and his family, I'm hoping they find him quickly.

The mountains always have that double edged sword, they hold some of the most beautiful scenery in the world but at the same time those same storms that leave pristine snow and clean air put people at risk when those storms are happening and hikers/skiers/climbers are out playing in them during those events. As I was shooting pictures yesterday the "Irony" of that fact did not escape me, it was further apparent in that I was hiking with someone that just celebrated the third anniversary of being rescued from the summit hut after weathering 2 nights in that hut after getting hurt late in the day near the summit and another storm blew in and trapped said hiker in the hut as no one could get to them while the storm was raging. It's my hope that we have another successful rescue and my hat is off to all the Mountain Rescue folks that drop what they are doing and race to the mountains to be of help. As I was entering the boarding area to take the tram down there were at least 10 to 14 SAR folks getting off the tram heading out to do more searching, mind you it's already dark outside, the temperature is dropping, the snow is super soft, their packs are in the range of 50 plus pounds - they are just amazing people.

Lastly, I did have a great day of snow shoeing, it was nice to finally meet Patti and Carmen, the blueness of the sky in most of the pictures was some of the cleanest looking I've ever had the pleasure of seeing, the snow always puts a smile on my face, but still I'm never in a good place when I know someone is out there alone trying to fight for survival. Let's all say a little prayer that he is found and found soon.

My pictures here

I was wondering how things were over on SJ, looks so nice. Down the road when I improve my conditioning, I'd be interested in doing some of the volunteer SAR. I wonder if I could hack it, and if living a couple hours away would preclude me from serving realistically.

Burchey wrote: ↑I was wondering how things were over on SJ, looks so nice. Down the road when I improve my conditioning, I'd be interested in doing some of the volunteer SAR. I wonder if I could hack it, and if living a couple hours away would preclude me from serving realistically.

Being a volunteer is more about atitude from what I've been told by more than one SAR guy, they want people from all levels of experience, they will help train you to get the rest of the skills. You can join you local group and then when a missing hiker/climber goes missing for more than a day they usually call in teams from other areas - like they did for the one that took place over the weekend - Riverside Mountain rescue called in Sierra Madre and expanded the search, the bigger the area, the more resources are needed - word has it that he was just found alive

Awesome! Thanks Lilbitmo.

Must have been a worthwhile outing, Zach and Patrick, because you were both inspired to write a lot! I think Patrick's 9 day "Leatherneck to Clouds" will be easy to beat . . .

Leatherneck is in my sights next.

... I still had more fun than most of the prisoners up in San Quentin.

They all have I-phones and blackberry's now, they will probably read this TR.