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To the Moon, Alice! ... Take 2

Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 4:36 pm
by MooseTracks
After being resoundingly thwarted back in January, and some route investigation (IE: BobR's pics from last weekend of his climb of the peak), I headed back into the Palisades area to take on "The Biggest Pile of Rubble in the Sierra" (see Secor). I was still babying my knee a bit, and my friend Deb has been rehabbing a broken ankle, so this seemed like a good spot to challenge us both without breaking us.

I picked Deb up in BP Saturday morning, and it dawned clear and gorgeous:
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We stayed in the South Fork, since the route from the north was a bit steeper, and Deb hadn't brought her crampons/axe. But the snow was firm with a bit of give for boot track, so it made for a lovely ascent. We traversed the base of the peak until reaching the gulley that heads up.
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Once we hit the sun, it got hot really quickly, and since, for once, I wasn't postholing (well, much), I decided to let the ol' gams get a bit of sun:
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From here it's really a no-brainer: straight up the gulley to the saddle, then turn right and walk along the ridge to the summit pile. It was alovely walk up to the saddle, and while my knee felt a little weak on some bigger steps, at least it didn't hurt.
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After starting at 7, we were on the summit by 11. When we were here in January, we didn't reach 10.6K until around 2! What a difference! From the saddle and summit, we had a spectacular view into the North Fork basin, which I had never seen before, except from Agassiz last summer.

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A cold breeze was blowin' over the summit, so we descended a few yards to eat lunch and bask in the sun. We had the summit to ourselves (actually didn't see anyone until we got back to the TOF!). Since we weren't sure how soft the snow was going to get in the gulley, we decided to descend the melted out scree faces on the SE to get back to the South Fork. Hooray for scree skiing!

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By 2 p.m. we were back at the TOF, where I cracked a bottle of bubbly to celebrate Deb's first Sierra peak of the year, as well as her first time back over 11K since her fracture. I was so proud of her! On the way, I was recognized by a man named Phil at the trailhead, who posts as Quandary here. He had been out with his wife and hiked w/ SnowNymph last fall, and now he was out playing since he was between jobs in Indiana! Of course, what this means, is, dinner party at the Moose Lodge!!

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My buddie Paul (Lugsole) was also up for the weekend to play with the Sierra Club Ski Mountaineers, so the three of us had a lovely time chattin' it up over grilled turkey, spinach, and fresh sourdough from Schat's. Good times, and another great day!!

Rest of the pics are here.

-L :cool:

Re: To the Moon, Alice! ... Take 2

Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 6:58 pm
by Lucrativ
nice post(s) :righton:

Re: To the Moon, Alice! ... Take 2

Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 8:07 pm
by Snow Nymph
Sorry I missed Phil this weekend. Cingular sux! I got his message at 9:30pm! Glad you guys were able to do something!

Looks like I will have to try this one soon. Tomcat? Take 2 for me . . . Gotta get it this time!

thanks for the pix!