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Peak(s):  Mt. Yale  -  14,200 feet
Date Posted:  05/05/2015
Modified:  05/10/2015
Date Climbed:   05/02/2015
Author:  asarsam
 Solo Spring Sunrise Summit of Mount Yale - East Ridge   

First, the good stuff, the "why" of why I did this trip:

Sunrise Timelapse from 14,000 feet:

https://youtu.be/QG_5pA2UTOs

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The stats:
Route- Mt. Yale East Ridge
Distance- 10 miles Roundtrip
Elevation Gain- 5000 feet
Total Time- 12:45 hours

Equipment List:
T-shirt, Hoodie, Down Jacket, Winter Jacket, Underwear, Snow Pants, Hat, Snow Goggles, Balaclava, Light Gloves, Heavy Gloves, Wool Socks (2), Hiking Boots, Gaiters, Trek Poles, Ice Axe, Microspikes, Snowshoes, Snowshoe Bag, 40L Backpack, Cell Phone, Headphones, Cameras, Headlights (2), 1L Nalgene Bottle (3), 3L of water, JetBoil, Dried Food Meal, ClifBars (5), Avalanche Beacon, Shovel, Probe, First Aid Kit, Bungee Cords (2)

The Story:
The pictures for the route were taken during the descent since the ascent was at night. They were both the same route, except when I saw minor line improvements on the descent that I didn't observe coming up.

Initially I was planning for the Standard Route, but as I drove past the Avalanche Gulch Trailhead, the lack of snow changed my decision. The extra mileage and gain would be offset by the snow deficit of the East Ridge route. I read up on both routes earlier, had the route descriptions, and GPS maps on the phone. Left the car at 22:00 and made up the Colorado Trail from Avalanche Gulch Trailhead by headlight. The first mile and about 1000 feet were amazing without snow, reminded me of the summer days after battling through four snowy 14ers the last few months. After the short clear mile, there were snow patches, switched to microspikes at about 10,400 feet when the patches became consistent, and switched to snowshoes at 11,000 feet. There was a boot pack in the snow that I started following. Checking in on the trail on my GPS, the bootpack was angling left away from the Colorado Trail, but still in the right direction. So I kept following the bootpack to make the walking easier through the rest of the trees. There is something unnerving about going through the trees at night though, with nothing but a small light beam in front of you.

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The random thoughts that pop up, wondering which predator is watching you and following you in the dark. Wasn't too worried about a Mountain Lion though, it would have pounced on me and have eaten me before I even thought about fight or flight. I was just hoping a bear didn't wake up early from hibernation and was looking for its first meal. It was nice seeing the luminance of the near full Moon through the clearings once in awhile, as I moved quickly as I could to the next spot the headlight was lighting. Finally made it to the edge of the trees and into an open clearing, the bright moon light revealed the headwall of the ridge.

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This is when I noticed that I was too far to the left and heading straight would mean dangerous avalanche terrain. Avalanches on the headwall seen from above:

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The people that made the bootpack trail also noticed this and headed right towards a finger of trees growing up the ridge. Using these trees would make gaining the ridge safer.

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After gaining the ridge I switched back to microspikes on the firmer wind-blown snow. The bootpack trail I was following ended at this point, I didn't know if they turned around or the wind blew it away. The route description calls for going around difficulties posed by ridge points. The steep snow on the sides would make this dangerous though, so I opted to go straight over all the ridge points, even if it meant making the Class 2 route into a Class 3. First few bumps were easy going and the looming mountain was beautifully surreal under the moon light.

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The only Class 3 section wasn't too difficult at 12,900 feet as it was only about 10 feet of climbing.

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Following the ridgeline was still going well until the set of 13,400 foot points. I climbed up one of them to find out that the ridge line drops off into a cliff. I could bypass the cliffs by down climbing and using the steep snow slope to the left. This was the most dangerous part of the night for me- if I slipped on this slope I had about 30 feet to self-arrest before a drop off. I used kicking steps to down climb the snow slope as I anchored myself with the ice axe. Started traversing across carefully, same procedure: anchor the ice axe, kick in left foot, kick in right foot, and repeat a few feet further. The microspikes did well as they skidded a little on the firm snow, but crampons would have been a much better choice.

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After getting past those points, it was short easy terrain until the second steepest slope that had to be climbed. Wasn't Class 3, but I was using my ice axe to make my way up.

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After this section the rest of the terrain was moderate to the top.

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I originally planned on shooting the timelapse from the summit, but was running about 45 minutes late due to the difficulties. I had an alarm set to start filming at 5:30 and it went off right when I was crossing 14,000 feet. I set up the camera there and continued up.

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The last 200 feet was about turning around every minute watching the sky change colors. The sun came up when I was about 50 feet below the summit at about 6:05 and I finally summited at 6:15. Seeing the shadow of Yale stretching to infinity on the west side was one of the most amazing things I've seen. I've seen pictures of the pyramid shadows on big mountains like Everest, K2, and Denali, but I felt ecstatic to see it on Yale. Spent about 15 minutes on the summit snapping more pictures and started heading down to pick up the camera.

The snow started to soften, but the descent was mostly uneventful. It was a nice change being able to see the scenery- past the headlight beam. After taking a break at tree line, made it back to the car at 10:45.

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Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
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Comments or Questions
glenmiz
User
In the bucket
5/10/2015 9:22am
I enjoyed the video and have added experiencing this in person to my bucket list. Thanks!


jwendling
User
Wow
5/10/2015 9:22am
Great report. Thanks!
I’m way jealous.
I noticed the shadow before I read your report and was amazed. Great pictures and video.
Gutsy to do that at night solo.
Congrats on a great night/day.


spong0949
User
Awesome!
5/10/2015 9:23am
Very cool video and photos! Thanks for sharing.



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