[Thorschosen]

Here's the address for the video of the climb.

I met Gimpilator on another website and we decided to meet up for a climb on Merchant Peak. The snow in the first gulley was pretty perfect, though there was melt water running underneath it. The snow was deep enough to walk right over the second and third steps without a problem. We headed up rock at the beginning of the second gulley with the cave-like overhang and then hit snow again. Once we got into the sun the snow conditions deteriorated rapidly. There had been a couple feet of new snow in the past week or two and the temperature was now getting much warmer than it had been in the previous weeks, around 75 degrees in Baring. We continued on through soft snow to the ridge between the two main peaks but made the decision to turn around because the slopes seemed like they were getting ready to slide. We were only 220 vertical feet from the summit but the small slides we began to see as we turned back, and the special avalanche warning that was put out for the week, let us know we made the smart choice. We made it down safe and the mountain will be there to climb another day. Lars

[Gimpilator]

It was great to meet you Lars. I'm certain that we made the right choice turning around. It's always a bummer to get that close to a summit and not make it, but the small slides we saw were a confirmation.

Baring seen from Merchant

[jboealps]

Good Choice on turning around. I recall the last bit being a traverse across some steep slopes to get to the summit.

[puzzlr]

Merchant is pretty high on my list of must-do peaks, ever since an amazing day on Gunn. Amazing photo of Baring. No shots from the climb?

[rossb]

Thanks for the trip report. Years ago my buddy and I almost climbed it. We got off route, and got about as far as you did. We climbed the wrong bump, and didn't feel like going down and up to climb to the top. It was much worse than we expected. We didn't like the gully at all. We encountered way too much shallow snow over rock (it looks like you timed it better). To make matters much worse, on the way down we were causing little slushy snow slides. These weren't a big issue, except they managed to cause a few rocks to get loose. One rock in particular, about the size of a bull, managed to bounce its way down, and barely missed us. I saw it first, and said "head to the trees" (meaning the ridge, where the trees were). I got there in plenty of time, but my buddy came within a couple feet of being squashed. We nicknamed the mountain Merchant of Death, and vowed to never go back. But I'm glad you had a good time, and I think you made the right decision. This is avalanche season, but a different type of avalanche. It is highly unlikely that you will be buried in an avalanche this time of year. But you can easily be swept off a cliff, or cause some really big boulders to come loose. Glad you are safe, and that really is a very pretty area. You just have to know what you are getting into (and reports like this are great for that).

[Fletcher]

Merchant seems like a troublesome peak, everyone has one story or another. I climbed in a couple years ago on a cloudy, misty day. We made the summit but on the way down, one of our party punched through a hole in the snow and tore his Achilles. It was rough getting him out, by far the worst injury I have personally seen happen in the mountains. Thankfully, he has since made a full recovery.

[SergioNapelo]

Cool trip!

[Magellan]

Not bad for a one picture trip report.