Last week's snow storm made the traverse from South Arapaho Peak interesting at points. We saw one other set of footprints but not for long. The class 4 section was not impacted but shortly afterwards there was snow on the western slopes of the ridge. This added an exposed Class 3 move to maneuver around rocks without going on steep snow. Also, the last downclimb before summitting was covered in ice and snow (see attached pictures). The easiest way to avoid this exposed, steep downclimb would be a 10-ft vertical downclimb (we saw one foothold but it was too inclined to see further). Rather than doing the dangerous but doable blind downclimb on this rock or the steep slope, we turned back. The final ascent was clearly dry.
 
|
