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It has been a long time since I have climbed in fresh snow. It has also been a long time that a peak has brought me to tears. Clark mountain 8602' did it.
We had 3 route choices that dicey and I agonized over: 1. Boulder Creek route with a nasty class 2, "one and only gully" to get over the ridge in the snow. 2. The Y route that runs up a water shed and has 2000' of class 3-4 slab to climb. This time of year it would be icy. 3. The Thunder Creek route. There are many accounts that this route is not easy to find or fallow. We found a TR by Mike Collins and Stephan saying it was difficult. Now if these two say it was tough then it has to be tough! We chose the boulder creek route. Dicey has three friends who where planning on coming up on Sunday to summit then camp. So now we had two teams going for the top. We left a 2-way radio at our car and had plans to contact them around 12:00 noon. “Cobra 1 calling Cobra 2, come in” Dicey, Mesachie Mark and I headed up the trail early sat morning. The forest was full of color. All the under brush has turned great colors. The first 4 miles of the trail is level, then you take a right turn and head up boulder creek trail. After many switchbacks and a total of 8.5 miles or so there is a faint but easy to find climbers path. It is called the ‘Sheepherder’s Trail’. This trail takes you through the basin and then up to the SE ridge. We stepped off the trail around 5700' and headed N-NW and found a great spot to camp at 6000' for the night. We set up camp in a snow squall and that is when mark told us it was his birthday. 
We celebrated a bit and hit the sack when the third snow squall of the evening hit. We woke up to clear skies with temp. at 22 degrees. A light dusting of snow covered everything down to 5500'. Sunrise was just amazing!  
After breakfast and coffee we headed up. It was time to find "the gully". The snow was only a few inches deep up to 6500' then just kept getting deeper. The fog created by the sun and mountain started to drift, sink, and rise. 
After a long rising traverse and looking for the right notch striking out twice. We continued traversing and reached the notch with "one and only gully" over the ridge.   
Holly cow they call that class 2  . We sat and took a break at the notch and took in the awesome views. It was 11:00 so, Dicey tried to call Team Cobra 2 but there was no answer.
Time to head down the gully. I was a little freaked out going down this. The gully in west facing and had not seen the sun yet. The snow was light and fluffy like a powder on top of slab rock and frozen talus. It would not hold a foot well at all. I would call this a class 3 with snow on it. When I reached the other two down at the bottom they told me to turn around and look at what we went down. All I could say is “Holy sh-- Are we stupid?” They thought it was a funny but I was serious  .
"The one and only gully" Dicey tried Cobra 2 again no answer. From the bottom of the gully we traversed our way over to a shelf. The traverse was slick and steep. Once we reached the shelf I was relieved. The snow at this point was close to 8"-10" and filling in all the nooks and crannies around the rocks. Drifts where getting deeper. Mark lead the way and kicked steps the rest of the way. Thanks mark!  
The snow was quite deep in sections where it drifted. Some spots we would post hole up to our knees. The last bit of the climb is on a class 2 section up to the summit. The summit was shrouded with fog and clouds. This is where the climber Tazz on one shoulder saying “do it, it will be fun” and the cautious Tazz on the other shoulder saying “is the risk worth it?” (They are always fighting) The climber tazz won. Mark and Dicey where about 150'-200' above me when I hear them hoot and holler. That was when I knew there where there. This helped push me up the last 150' of the climb. Thanks guys! When I reached the top I was so relieved and excited that I didn’t slip and fall, tears just started to flow. (Only for a couple of seconds and they where happy tears  ) We all sat in the fog and cold hoping the fog would lift but it never did.
Time to descend. The descent was much easier than what I had in my mind, I was relieved. 
We still had the gully to deal with. By this time the snow had been warmed up enough that the gully was quite easy to climb. Once back up in the notch we saw and where able to contact Cobra 2. They were off route. 
They couldn’t find the sheepherder path. They took a nasty steep route from the Boulder creek head waters up to the ridge just below the East peak. They where finished climbing and didn’t want to try for the summit at this point. Dicey talked to them and planned to meet them down lower. Now the last steep section and we where home free. We met up with her friends and showed them the easy way down to there camp. 
Packed up our camp and started the 9.5 mile slog to the car. We did the last 5 miles out with head lamps. For someone like me(slow) this is a three day trip. (I am not as good of shape as they are)I could not keep up during the accents. Dicey and Mark could have easily made it out by dark. Thanks for being patient with my slowness guys. My boots performed well during the climb! I had a lot of pain in the bottom of my fore foot (bruising?) and some blisters starting to form on the heals.(nothing a little duct tape didn’t fix.) I am sooooo sore today it hurts to go up or down the stairs. My feet feel like they went through a grinder. All in all this was an adrenaline filled fun climb with two of the greatest people to share it with. Please pipe in guys with your words and pics. 22miles RT 6200' gain total acc gain 8700'  Posted By: tazz In: "The one and only gully" Clark Mtn 8602 |