Attempted the hourglass route on Little Bear, started around 2:30AM from about 10,300' on the road. The lower portion of the road has improve *a little* (evidence of grater/bulldozer moving rocks around). The gulley from the lake had intermittent snow to the notch. The traverse from the notch to the base of the hourglass is almost 100% dry, some small snowfields that can be avoided. Snow was rock solid all the way up until ~9:30AM.
The hourglass itself has snow from the base to about where the lower section of ropes are anchored in. We decided to call off attempting the summit at about 13,600' due to ice bridges (snow in the hourglass in some parts had a 3 foot gap of air/running water underneath the snow layer, as well as verglas on the left side). I certainly didn't want to stick around to experience what happens when those pockets of ice/snow collapse and begin to slide down the lower portion/slabs of the hourglass.
|
