Rik
03-05-2006, 06:25 PM
Hiked Pitchoff today with Charlene and Dali. We hiked from the east end or north end or northeast end or Keene end however you want to look at it. Someone had signed in yesterday but I don't think they went very far judging from the tracks. We started late so the sun was out and warm. The snow was soft like it usually gets in the afternoon in late winter or spring. It got heavy. There was quite a bit of ice under the wet snow and in the morning it was just sliding off the ice. We thought about switching to crampons several times but we would have been switching back and forth a lot since there was quite a bit of unbroken snow up there. Views today were outrageous. Not a cloud. Bright blue in every direction. On the north summit it was pretty windy, not so much on the middle summit, and then again on the actual peak. On the middle peak it was calm enough to sit on the rocks and eat and enjoy the views. Forgot how many ups and downs there are along this route which of course were most annoying on the way back. Chose to go back the way we came since we didn't want to walk the road with the dog. The way back was some good butt sliding. Up high our tracks were blowing in a bit where it was windy and the snow still powder. Down lower in the shade our morning tracks had started to set nicely. This was intended to be an easy day but having to break trail in heavy snow made it more tiring than I expected. Took lots of pictures from the many viewpoints along the way. Didn't see anyone else out although it looked like someone had come up the other way either yesterday or earlier today.