Champagne Powder and Glass Mountain Dreams
Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 11:21 am
After plans of heading up Shepherds Pass were thwarted by the rather inclement weather, my bud Paul ventured north to hang for the weekend. Sunday we headed north and east into the Benton Range to explore as much as we could. While snowy and cloudy, the storm was quite lovely, and we were able to hit the whole Glass Mountain Ridge.
Glass Mountain (11,140ft)
Kelty Peak (10,617ft)
Wilfred Peak (10,030ft)
Cone Peak (10,152ft)
Some notes:
1) While the road is well-packed dirt, it was a little soft from the rains and snow. Only light dustings occurred in the vicinity of Sawmill Meadow, where we parked (9200ft).
2) A brand new covering of snow (1-2") was on everything above 9500ft, getting progressively deeper with the climb. Depths near the summits varied from 6-12". The powder was fluff-dry , reminding me of Utah snow. It actually helped a lot with traction on the obsidian scree slopes of all these peaks.
3) The ridge is very straightforward and a nice bit of up and down. Besides Glass, there are no registers or markers, nor are the other peaks named on the topos.
4) I'm sure the views regularly are quite spectacular. We saw, well, clouds . :/ Actually, they parted for a few minutes when we were on Cone to reveal Crowley Lake and parts of the Long Valley Caldera.
Lighting and fog made for a very interesting photo day. Luckily both Paul and I wore bright colors so we could see each other! A few other moments from the day:
Rest of the pics are here.
-L
Glass Mountain (11,140ft)
Kelty Peak (10,617ft)
Wilfred Peak (10,030ft)
Cone Peak (10,152ft)
Some notes:
1) While the road is well-packed dirt, it was a little soft from the rains and snow. Only light dustings occurred in the vicinity of Sawmill Meadow, where we parked (9200ft).
2) A brand new covering of snow (1-2") was on everything above 9500ft, getting progressively deeper with the climb. Depths near the summits varied from 6-12". The powder was fluff-dry , reminding me of Utah snow. It actually helped a lot with traction on the obsidian scree slopes of all these peaks.
3) The ridge is very straightforward and a nice bit of up and down. Besides Glass, there are no registers or markers, nor are the other peaks named on the topos.
4) I'm sure the views regularly are quite spectacular. We saw, well, clouds . :/ Actually, they parted for a few minutes when we were on Cone to reveal Crowley Lake and parts of the Long Valley Caldera.
Lighting and fog made for a very interesting photo day. Luckily both Paul and I wore bright colors so we could see each other! A few other moments from the day:
Rest of the pics are here.
-L
