Snowmass Mtn

25 May 2000 - by Sherry Richardson

Three to go!

Six CMCers reached the summit of Snowmass Mt. over the Memorial Day weekend.

The 8/9 mile backpack took us 6 hours. We rationalized that wasn't too bad for the first backpack of the season. We carried snowshoes, so put them on for a couple hundred yards before we reached the beaver ponds. Took them off again before reaching the log jam, never to use them again.

The log jam provided safe and fun passage to the other side of the beaver pond.

Reached Snowmass Lake around 6 p.m., and just got our tents up before we were hit with a mighty wind and gropple storm. We all dove for the tents, dragging our packs along with us. Sat, laid, snoozed out the storm for about an hour. Had time to fix and eat dinner before it showered again.

Arose at 5:20 a.m. to partly cloudy skies, which cleared soon after we began our trudge up the hill. Chose to circle the lake to the right and climb up a snow-filled gully to the snowfields. Traversed above and around the lake in pretty good snow, ie, little postholing, save for the biggest of us climbers!

We climbed directly up the snowfield to the rocky ridge. We accessed the ridge about 3/4 of the way along towards the summit through a narrow, steep snow couloir. Scrambled along the ridge, staying high and avoiding some rotten snow on the standard route.

We reached the summit at 11:30. Skies were blue.


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