lundi 4 mai 2015
Solo ascent/descent of Mt Sherman on splitboard
Posted on 12:03 by Immigration
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I tried to get some partners for this idea, but none of my regular crew seemed to be interested. I weighed the pros and cons of going solo, and decided to give it a go.
Had to get out of bed really early on a Saturday morning and try to beat the forecasted weather (including rain and high wind) that was forecast for this day
Saturday May 2nd, 2015
The approach is a long hike up a snow covered road, not sure of the distance, maybe 2-3 miles, give or take ??
Started out just hiking with the board on back in split configuration to avoid the sail effect from the stiff headwind, eventually put the split skis on once it was time to leave the road and start the actual climb.
On the climb, I used ski crampons after about mid-way since it got progressively steeper. I stupidly thought I could ascend straight up the face all the way to the summit from the way it looked from where I was and went off-route and got stuck on a 40 degree face where I started slipping, even with ski crampons on.
I had to take off the split skis and put them on the pack and tried to boot-kick steps up on even steeper terrain, but eventually ran into a layer of ice about an inch under the surface that would not allow my boots to kick any steps and allowed no traction at all (I need boot crampons but have been procrastinating to see which ones would work well with better splitboard boots I need to find/buy). With no boot crampons and only a whippet as a lifeline, I decided to down-climb and traverse to a rock outcrop to get to “safety”. I could use a second whippet or a real ice axe, but my pack is already too heavy.
I eventually (after much more sketchy climbing while exhausted) made the summit (elevation: 14,036 feet). Pretty cool up there in full-winter conditions
I did start the splitboard descent from the summit- it was snowing very lightly, but the winds were pretty strong. This video was not from the very top because it was flat light up there and the snow was a hard breakable crust. This vid captures at least the bottom 2/3 of the main face of the descent
I had to wait for a small hole in the cloud-cover in order to wait for the sun to see anything but a solid featureless mass of white.
The footprints you can see after about mid-way down are those of some hikers who were on the route before me. When I went off-route, they stayed on route and were able to summit and descend quite a long ways before I was able to extract myself from that sketchy spot on the face (this spot was on rider’s right of the line you see, but is above the elevation where the vid starts). Also, near the bottom, there was a gully on the right that looked like the obvious choice, but it was clogged with old mining debris and cables that I saw on the way up- not to mention a large cornice that looked like it could fall on you- obvious terrain trap.
Will add pics later.
Had to get out of bed really early on a Saturday morning and try to beat the forecasted weather (including rain and high wind) that was forecast for this day
Saturday May 2nd, 2015
The approach is a long hike up a snow covered road, not sure of the distance, maybe 2-3 miles, give or take ??
Started out just hiking with the board on back in split configuration to avoid the sail effect from the stiff headwind, eventually put the split skis on once it was time to leave the road and start the actual climb.
On the climb, I used ski crampons after about mid-way since it got progressively steeper. I stupidly thought I could ascend straight up the face all the way to the summit from the way it looked from where I was and went off-route and got stuck on a 40 degree face where I started slipping, even with ski crampons on.
I had to take off the split skis and put them on the pack and tried to boot-kick steps up on even steeper terrain, but eventually ran into a layer of ice about an inch under the surface that would not allow my boots to kick any steps and allowed no traction at all (I need boot crampons but have been procrastinating to see which ones would work well with better splitboard boots I need to find/buy). With no boot crampons and only a whippet as a lifeline, I decided to down-climb and traverse to a rock outcrop to get to “safety”. I could use a second whippet or a real ice axe, but my pack is already too heavy.
I eventually (after much more sketchy climbing while exhausted) made the summit (elevation: 14,036 feet). Pretty cool up there in full-winter conditions
I did start the splitboard descent from the summit- it was snowing very lightly, but the winds were pretty strong. This video was not from the very top because it was flat light up there and the snow was a hard breakable crust. This vid captures at least the bottom 2/3 of the main face of the descent
I had to wait for a small hole in the cloud-cover in order to wait for the sun to see anything but a solid featureless mass of white.
The footprints you can see after about mid-way down are those of some hikers who were on the route before me. When I went off-route, they stayed on route and were able to summit and descend quite a long ways before I was able to extract myself from that sketchy spot on the face (this spot was on rider’s right of the line you see, but is above the elevation where the vid starts). Also, near the bottom, there was a gully on the right that looked like the obvious choice, but it was clogged with old mining debris and cables that I saw on the way up- not to mention a large cornice that looked like it could fall on you- obvious terrain trap.
Will add pics later.
Solo ascent/descent of Mt Sherman on splitboard
Categories: Solo ascent/descent of Mt Sherman on splitboard
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