McAlpinism MUU Style: One Helluva Warm-up! Sphinx ice in November

With regards to the Sphinx, its become personal. Come late fall, ice climbing starts creeping over my brain like the ice does to the rocks. The Lowe Route aka the Lowe Direct is one of the longest alpine ice routes in the lower 48 and was originally climbed bottom to top on-sight by one of my idols, Alex Lowe and his wife Jen. Its climbs at WI3 or WI5 depending on the presence or absence of the WI5 pitch. Its about 7 pitches long and almost 2k' of gain, pretty much all of it in your crampons. The TH is about 2 hours from Bozeman, the hike to the saddle is 4-5 miles (I have seen both)/ a 2 hour hike, then about an hour to the base of the climb. Not a half-day outing. I think this was my 6th attempt at this route with my 4th partner. I met Matt at the Hideaway a little over a week ago (had never climbed with him obviously) and asked him if he wanted to give it a go with me and he jumped right on board. Most of my more regular partners know what kind of effort that climb requires so they're never too eager to hike all the way out there. People that dont exactly know what they are getting themselves in to usually make for great optimistic, enthusiastic partners and Matt was just that. I kinda needed someone that hadnt been out there before. We got a fairly late start which wasnt all bad; we didnt have to be the first people walking up that Grizzly-laden trail in the dark! We were roped up and climbing by noon, I think. I got to lead every pitch as Matt is somewhat new to ice climbing, atleast leading anyway. The first pitch turned out to be the hardest of the day. In my experience, the first pitch of the day is always the hardest. So here we are at the first pitch of the day as well as the first pitch of the season! The ice was good, but very thin and I had to girth hitch one screw and use all of my stubbies. Two low angle ice/snow shelf pitches brought us up to the 4th pitch and the last real ice pitch of the Lowe Direct. This 4th pitch was another WI3 but with plenty of ice. We solo'd the 5th pitch past the WI5 pitch so we could get on the last major ice lead of the day before it was dark. We were moving pretty slowly. Ill catch some flack for not climbing the hardest pitch of the route but we were dam near under headlamps already with a couple more pitches to go. Even though I didnt climb it, I know I can. Its super short and the WI5 part is less than 10' long, probably close to 6' (in the conditions we had = fat). I can imagine its a spicy nacho earlier in the season. I belayed Matt up the last real ice pitch in total darkness. After that, we simul-climbed under headlamps all the way up to the plateau, it was 7pm. The weather on the North face had been perfect all day but higher up it was very windy and snow was blowing around in blizzard-like fury. The sluff pouring down the upper part of the climb kept things exciting (hoods up chins down!). I somehow missed the flat part of the summit plateau and walked right up to the summit ridge where I noticed the summit cairn. "Well now I know where we are." We had planned on no summit, hasta la vista baby, but the low visibility fooled me. I had summited the mountain 2 or 3 times prior so I knew the way down. We got back to the car by 10 and gleefully chatted about the climb over a PBR. Thanks Matt!