See narrative at bottom of page.

Narrative:

I got a late start, so I didn’t hit the Trail Canyon trailhead till after 9AM. I parked my car down below the road closure (they are still cleaning up debris from the avalanche); I later realized that Nick had told a way to drive around the closure and get to the trailhead. Oh well.

I decided to forgo snowshoes, and just take crampons, relying on good info from Anya. That turned out to be a good decision. The crampons went on about 0.5 miles up the trail, and stayed on for the rest of the hike. I post-holed 10 times only, all on the way back. Most of the day I wore a T-shirt and shorts, with short gaiters to keep the snow out of the tops of my crappy Gore-Tex boots. My only other "snow-specific" equipment was a pair of trekking poles with small snow baskets. I left my ice axe in the car.

I skipped most of the switchbacks on the Trail Canyon trail, and just went up the hogback*. I could tell when I intersected the North Loop Trail, but the differences between trail and untracked woods were subtle; there was no evidence of snowshoe packing, and the snow went in a uniform slope across the trail, as if no one had been by in recent times. I did see occasional snowshoe prints up high on the North Loop, but the intense sun has erased most evidence.

The talus slope was almost pleasant with crampons. My high altitude conditioning has been very sparse this year, so I would take 50 steps in 50 seconds, then rest for 30 seconds, to keep my heart from exploding. At the top of the talus slope, about 11 AM, I thought I heard shouting from the direction of the summit. I knew another group planned to skin up from the east side that same day, and I thought that maybe I heard them.

After the talus slope, the ridge east posed a slight dilemma. The more pristine snow on the north side of the cornice was actually softer, and would yield under my weight. So, I stayed as high on the cornice as I could, which led to some interesting views on the right side (i.e. big drops).

The final chute before the top was a cinch. There was enough snow, still hard, to give the crampons a good bite. I got to the top of Mummy in about 2 hrs 40 min after parking my car; I’m convinced that on that particular day, snowshoes would have added at least an hour.

At the top, there was evidence of the previous group, from log entries to – uhh – other bits of evidence. I stayed on the top for about 40 minutes, and was surprised to find it was only about 40-45F. I put on a light windbreaker on top, but quickly got too hot on the way down.

When I reached the top chute, there was a slightly unpleasant surprise. The snow had begun to get mushy, and was balling up under my crampons, giving the impression that I was on slightly unstable stilts. I had to knock the snow out every 20 steps, and had to force myself to jam the crampons straight into the slope (fighting the primal urge to position them at a low angle).

After that, the descent was a piece of cake. I considered taking off the crampons so I could glissade down the snow-covered talus slope; but I found that I was able to plunge-step down the slope quickly in crampons, with total control. The snow softened a bit, so I started to post-hole rarely, and was always surprised at the snow depth – I would sink in up to my crotch, and seemed to stop only then from the constraints of geometry, not because I hit dirt.

My GPS put the round-trip at 7.5 miles. I was surprised it was that long, considering all the switchbacks I cut.

* At the top of the hogback, the conditions for backwoods skiing were very good by ~1PM. The snow was dense, yet a corn consistency on top, so it could be cut reliably by edging. There are few trees up there, so the chances of becoming part of the scenery are minimal. For a moment, I wished I had my skis, along with the portion of cerebellum that controlled my right foot.