3:30am alarm. Coffee brewing by 3:40. On the road by 4:00am. I could count on both hands how many times I have made alpine starts like this. Hopefully it gives you an idea of how serious the climb is and how serious we were about climbing it. Its one of the longest alpine ice routes in the lower 48 at 500 meters WI5 (Joe Joesephson, Winter Dance)! Devin nor I had ever been back there in the winter so we werent sure which way to approach the climbs. The standard way to approach the climbs was riddled with objective hazards (avalanches); we obviously didnt want to go that way. So we went the long way, and found out the hard way, the wrong way to go (song?). But, now we know the right approach for next time! The ice is, historically speaking, very fat. It was so pretty contrasting against the bright red conglomerate rock that makes up the north face of the mountain. We spotted a couple of big bull elk on the way in too. We walked for ~4.5 hours over 7 miles with the last 1.5 miles bushwhacking through knee to waist deep snow. That really slows you down and drains your energy. We admitted defeat at the base of the climb. Somehow, it is one of the most memorable walks in the woods I have ever had.
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| Looking West at the Madison valley as the sun was coming up. We are about two hours into the hike, the whole time using a headlamp. |
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| Dont look at me! Look at the ice! |
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| Oh my god! Where did this come from! |
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Apparently the feeling was mutual.
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| What ended up being point B on our first attempt at the Lowe Route. |
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| Sphinx is the mountain in the rear on the right, thats Helmet mountain in the foreground. |
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| Dug a pit for informational purposes. |
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| Obvious layering. The lower layer is all sugar snow. |
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| Sugar or facet snow. |
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| An isolated column post compression test showing slabs. |
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| Q2 sheer about 6" up from the ground on facet snow. |
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