[Now I Fly]

Went out yesterday to poke around and see how thing are filling in. While there is a fair amount of new snow it's not supportive and the boulders are hazardous.

time for spikes!

Love that color of blue!

breaking out.

heading towards the large fir tree.

always nice to get out from under the canopy!

the route goes straight up to the skyline, then follows it to the right.

There were tracks from a recent party on route. I find myself having conversations with them regarding route choices and snow conditions. :-) I normally keep to the west side of the ridge, avoiding the boulders and sticking to the snow. That didn't work well yesterday. The drift on the west side was too deep and soft. The scoured east side worked much better for the day.

:-)

working towards West Granite

bailed on West Granite. Route through the boulder section needs to be a bit more supportive for my taste.

Looking back on my exit route. Careful treading was name theme for the day!

The Winter Route follows the skyline.

Picked up the Elk highway back to the Pratt Lake trail.

got a bit sticky.

Anyway, fun day, even though it was tougher traveling than normal. Allways great to get out! Cheers B.

[Roly Poly]

I did the summer route a few days ago. It was so beautiful.

[Snowdog]

Nice to see you posting here B! And you write a nice TR. Barb & I were over on Bandera that day. It was nice to get above the fog. We opted not to do the peak for same reasons you had- boulders not filled in enough. Visited the lake instead. Beautiful day!