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Jamin Smitchger
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Joined: 02 Oct 2004
Posts: 673 | TRs | Pics
Location: Pullman
Jamin Smitchger
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PostMon Jun 12, 2006 1:16 am 
Having received only four hours of sleep, I woke up at 4:20am and met a guy named Ryan at the smokestack in Monroe at 5:00. We then headed up to the Blanca Lake trailhead. Unfortunately, I missed the road to trailhead and wasted 45 minutes trying to find it. Visibility at this point was around 100 yards. Anyway, we started up the trail at 6:50. We soon hit snow at around 3800 feet and lost the trail. After stumbling around in what we thought was the right direction, we assumed that we had passed Virgin Lake due to extremely low visibility and were heading up the ridge south of Kyes, which is where we needed to go anyway. After doing about 200 vertical feet up the ridge, I took a compass bearing to show the direction in which we needed to traverse on the east side of the ridge. Lo and behold, we were headed south, which meant we were heading up the ridge to point 5128. We had gotten completely turned around in the clouds. After turning around, we quickly reached virgin lake and headed up the ridge. At this point, it began to rain. Due to the rain and low visibility, I sort of gave up hope that I would be able to make the summit, but I decided to scout out the route for a future attempt. After doing a traverse to the col at 5400 we ascended the ridge on moderately sloped rock and snow. The clouds would break every once in a while, but we were socked in a lot. At 6400, we attempted to gain the ridge leading up to the summit, but we soon found out that it was rather exposed in many areas. At this point Ryan and I were exhausted, and Ryan decided to stay put and rest. After resting for about 15 minutes, I went on alone with only my ice axe and a map. The sun soon peeked out from behind the clouds, and I was nearly blinded by the glare on the snow. By far most of the snow and rock slopes were moderate, but I would not recommend traversing right under the ridge like I did. After a little more than an hour, I reached Monte Cristo (7025), which is the sub-summit on Kyes. I was extremely tired upon reaching Monte Cristo and wanted to go to sleep. I didn’t care whether I reached the summit. I merely wanted to rest my aching muscles and drink water, which I didn’t have with me. On the descent, I noticed that there was a very narrow bergschrund on the icefield below the summit. Upon returning to where Ryan was resting, we began a glissade down to Blanca Lake. This was by far the best glissade I have ever had in my life. On one section we probably descended almost 1000 vertical feet in five minutes. There were some cliffs, but we were able to avoid them. Upon reaching the lake, I probed the ice with the shaft of my ice axe and found it solid so we walked the entire length of the lake on the ice. At the other end of the lake, we found the trail and were able to hike it until about 4500 feet. It was hard to follow, but it should be open in about two weeks. The hike out was uneventful. We reached the car at around 8:30, five hours after I left Monte Cristo. I was extremely angry at myself for getting lost. If I hadn’t gotten turned around twice, I would have made the summit. The trip time car to car was 13.5 hours. 6500 vertical feet of gain and loss.
Between the clouds
Between the clouds
Blanca
Blanca
columbia from midlake
columbia from midlake
columbia with cloud cover
columbia with cloud cover
Columbia
Columbia
Glacier
Glacier
Heading toward summit 2
Heading toward summit 2
shot of blanca
shot of blanca
the glacier
the glacier

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mgd
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Joined: 27 May 2003
Posts: 3143 | TRs | Pics
Location: Full Moon Saloon
mgd
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PostMon Jun 12, 2006 7:15 am 
Interesting pictures! drink.gif That's the first partially melted shot of Blanca Lake that I've seen.

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Tazz
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Joined: 27 Apr 2005
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Tazz
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PostMon Jun 12, 2006 10:52 am 
Good try PSA! It is alway better to call it than to push your luck! You did get a good recon trip though. You will get it next time. up.gif Got some good pics from it too.

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Dean
(aka CascadeHiker)



Joined: 02 Mar 2002
Posts: 1967 | TRs | Pics
Location: ex Kennewick, Wa & Lehi Utah
Dean
(aka CascadeHiker)
PostMon Jun 12, 2006 2:38 pm 
Impressive effort. Kyes is a good grunt even without all the snow and in good weather.

Dean - working in Utah for awhile and feeling like it is a 'paid' vacation. http://www.summitpost.org/user_page.php?user_id=1160
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