| Peak: | Mt. Yale |
| Route: | Southwest Slopes |
| Range: | Sawatch |
| Posted By: | coloradomojo |
| Date of Info: | 5/25/2014 |
| Date Posted: | 5/26/2014 |
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A winter climb in late May. We checked forecast for Saturday night into Sunday and foolishly thought it was probably pessimistic but none the less we were prepared for it to be full on winter climb. Slept in our truck and it rained all night long but never froze down at the trail head. By 6AM we were on the trail in sleet. Previously mentioned existing snow crossings were still there and because it had not froze were just beginning a day of post holing. Above the last creek crossing with logs (~11,200ft) the rain from last night had been snow and the boot track quickly disappeared. We followed some faint tracks and ended up left of the trail and off route before turning to the less than well populated GPS route in our receiver. Ended up back on "route" above 12,000ft where there was 6-12 inches of new wind blown snow and no longer any hint of previous boot track. Followed the GPS route from there forward but were presented with numerous significant (on all fours) post holing instances from there to the saddle. Visibility had dropped to as low as 200-300 ft at times. Summit ridge was loaded with 12-16 inches of new snow. On the descent we again got off route in the trees (trying to avoid large snow drifts) and finally popped back out at ~11,200ft. We had opted to forgo snowshoes because of rain covers we had on our packs and questioned if that would have made for easier going in all the new snow. Once the sun has had a chance to consolidate the snow, this will become more of a Spring climb quickly |
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