20.05.2017
Up with the birds this morning! The sun was such a welcoming passage to the outdoors.
I've been wanting to do this trek for sometime now. I didn't want to miss the winter taste of this summit.
I headed up from Eric Dunning. Ran into a couple fellows coming up the Incline heading for the same destination. They past me while I was unlayering. Then I past them at the lookout. As I took the enchanted forest route I again fell behind. Two girls also caught up to us after the junction while I was adding my gaiters. The two fellows gave up. It was up to the ladies to conquer this one today. Lol. Met another two men on their way down....same deal. They gave up. For a Sat. long weekend....very quiet.
After the junction you are basically trekking up a forgotten river bed with an active stream. The forest closes in alot before opening at the helipad. A few fallen trees but really...just very over grown which makes for a very pretty trail. You then enter another beautiful forest loaded with old growth beauties. This is where I also found the navigation becoming difficult. Unnerving at times really. The snow was deep but had a hard crust. It was very rippled and covered with needles and debris. Very difficult to follow any previous prints. The markers were few and far between. I found myself observing alot before proceeding. Trying to make out a marking or print. An indent of any kind. I didnt download a map. Error in judgement on my part.
Eventually the forest changes and opens up allowing the sun in. Changing the snow to almost a snow cone consistency. It became very slippery...hard to grip onto anything. As we ascended the steep climb I would slide down...alot! On came my spikes.
I found myself scrambling on occasions. It was so steep and the snow just kept giving way. Everytime I saw blue sky with a bit of clearing I would think....Zeus we're here! No such luck! 3 steep bits with illusions to follow but once at the top...wow! Majestic moutian ranges with a brilliant blue sky! It was truly breathtaking. 360 degree mind blowing views. I never wanted to leave. I found the views here much more impressive than Evans. The ground was covered with a beautiful white snow blanket glistening in the sun. No words or pics really could do this justice.
I met the two girls who had past me earlier and they said the same. They never wanted to leave. They also said they were worried about navigating down. It really wasn't easy.
Zeus plopped himself down on the snow...he was pooped! I think we sat for at least an hour. Eagles flew over head. We had the entire place to ourselves. We were ontop of the world!
During our ascend we noticed rippling in the snow nearing the top edges. I heard and spied alot of avalanches as well. We were careful to stay away from any edging. The girls mentioned the same.
So...I basically ascended on my ass! Literally. The snow just gave way and we slooshed through it. It was fun but also scary at times. Alot of holes and tree wells where one could easily find themselves in a dangerous situation. I would slide sometimes 10ft at a time before stopping. And I couldn't stop. Nothing to grip at all. Watch for super deep hollow holes in the forest as well. The water run offs are running under the snow making it very dangerous.
I met a young fellow at this point. The only brave man to venture up today. He was wearing his snowshoes. Also the only one with shoes. He later chatted with me on the way down and said he also slid. Even in shoes. And also found navigation extremely difficult. He mentioned He wouldn't have made it up without any of our tracks past He forest. He too forgot to download a map. Lol He was a jogger and caught up to me quickly during our descend.
We both became confused coming back through the forest as well. We took the markers only visible to us to Lake Beautiful. I didn't look at my GPS until I had veered already too far and decided to just continue. So we got the whole tour today. Lake Beautiful by the way is pretty much snow free. The trail is patchy but not bad. Interesting...another fellow commented on my Instagram he did the same error to the lake just a few days ago. I'm not messing around about this concern. 😨
It was such a hot day I wore a t-shirt pretty much the entire trek. It wasn't till I got to the top and sat I added a layer. As soon as I started moving again off it came. I brought all my winter gear but snowshoes. Not certain they would have assisted me today or not. I highly recommend using a GPS on this trek. You can easily get lost in that upper forest and with the GPS at least you could backtrack your way out.
I'll definitely return here. One of my favorite treks!
Happy trails 😊
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