Timp run with Jun, Dorsimus and Jsh. The goal for the day was to run as far as we could and possibly get to the summit if we had time and didn't run into very much snow. Jun told me earlier in the day that as soon as it became mountaineering we would turn around... HAHAHAHA! I should have known better. Actually, I knew there would still be a lot of snow and I figured that Jun would want to go as high as we could. I was right.
We ran the first few miles and then we were in snow the rest of the way. We slogged, climbed, slipped, ran a little, fell, climbed some more. I fell off a snow bridge and sliced my hand with my ice axe that I had been carrying. Normally my axe would be secured on my pack, but I have a long run I am doing in the Wind Rivers next month and I wanted to see if I could run while carrying it since I don't really want to carry a full pack. Luckily the cut wasn't too deep, so it wasn't a big deal, but I had another close call, so I don't think I'll be doing any more running with the axe.
We ended up climbing a few semi steep snow slopes up to the basin and it still looks like winter up there. There was close to 5 feet of snow up there and the views were stunning. Unreal. I really wanted to go to the summit, but we just didn't have time. We ended up climbing up a cliff band up to a rock shelf just below the saddle where we decided to turn back. We did get a few sweet gilssades and had a lot of fun on the way down, but I really have a bad case of summit fever. I wanted to go up in a bad way, but it wasn't going to happen. It was still fun to get in some work with the crampons and axe though. This has been the worst spring/summer mountaineering for me for several years because of my achilles issues and now I want to get out for more. Hopefully I'll get out on something this weekend. Check out Jun's blog for some pics. | 