Hello,
My son and I started at the Portal with 40 and a 50 pound sacks. We started at 7:00 am and got to Lone Pine Lake, and that’s where the snow started. This place looks totally different with snow. This is my 3rd trip up the main trail, and if you are not well versed in crampons and ice axe use, I would forget trying until late July. We took a private lesson two weekends ago from Alpine Skills International on the use of ice axe and crampon. It was very, very, useful. Tom Carter our guide put us two hills 30-45 degree hill and had us self arrest in all the falling positions about 50 times total. I was exhausted. They are located in Truckee Ca.
Back to the trip, we made our way up to Outpost camp and there were only a few ice patches to walk around. Talked to a guy who tried to summit from here and he said it was way to long and hard, and that he would wish he had gone to the trail camp and attempted to summit from there. He also said were would need our crampons very soon. We made it to trail cramp without crampons or ice axe. We kicked a lot steps. It was all snow from Outpost Camp to Trail Camp.
My son is 15 years old and only weights 115 pounds, he struggled all the way up there. I made sure is was in reasonable shape with interval training and hill running. He has made it up Half Dome three times with me. He is also a experince back packer, and has made a few 3 day 40 mile backpacking trips with me. I am 53 years old and in very good shape.
It took us 9 hours, but he made it to trail camp. The last two years there were a lot of people up there. This year only a few souls. My son was exhausted, and I quickly filter some water and pitched the tent, and we changed into our night clothes. There is water behind the camp site area, so no need to melt snow. It got cold very quick as soon as gray sent in.
I got up at 6:00 am the next morning, and was not sure my son was game to try for the summit. I figured that if he was not up to it, I would leave him at trail camp and go for it myself. To my surprise, he got up and said he was willing. There were a few small groups that were heading up already. We were the last to start up the chute, and by the time were traversed the hill and started to got up, the snow was getting slushy. One small group was coming down the transverse, and after looking up the hill, said, “A man’s got to know his limitations.” Yes, it was quite an intimidating to look up the chute. Someone measured it and said it was 58 degrees in a few areas.
My son really struggled up that hill, and after about four hours he got to 13,000 feet. He was exhausted and had hit the wall. I was ahead of him at 13,300 ft and just a few hundred feet from the top of the chute. We had taken a pair of two way radios up the hill in the event we got separated. I called out for him to pull out his radio but he had forgotten it at Trail Camp. I started back down for him, and but the time I got to him he asleep! I woke him up and he said his hands were tingling and numb. I took his gloves off. His fingers were white as a ghost. After about 10 minuets of warming his hands under my armpits, the blood started to return to his hands. He said, “Dad, isn’t this is funny, I’m getting sun burn and frostbite at the same time.” I laughed with him, but I the back of my mind, I thought about drunks falling asleep in the snow and dying.
It was 12:00 noon now, and the snow as crap, and I post-holed a few times up to my waist on the way down the chute. We got back to camp 2:00 pm and no one was there. The first few guys came back at 3:00 pm and most came back at about 5:00 pm. I would say it took most people in these conditions 9-10 hours to summit and back from Trail Camp. I would not leave any later than 6:00 up the chute, and if I have my choice, I would leave at grey which is about 5:00 am . Crampons and ice axe are a must going up the chute. I fell and needed to self arrest twice.
Next morning we left trail camp at 7:00 am , and went back down a different way. It was much faster and less work than the way we came up. We did not go by Outpost camp and never saw mirror lake. Maybe someone with better route finding skills than I could explain the difference.
It took only four hours to get back to the portal. We used crampons all the way down until Lone Pine Lake.
This was an incredible and very rich mountain experience for my son and me. We learned a lot about snow travel and the use of crampons and ice axes. I am extremely proud of him, as he gave it everything he had.
I would like to thank Doug and everyone who has post to help us prepare for this summer time winter mountaineering trip.
Three weeks from now, we will attempt to summit Mount Shasta.
