Sunday, May 17, 2009

The second day we did not climb Unicorn Peak

Seriously people...We had no snow all winter long and now we’re wallowing in it. And it’s May!

No matter, it gave Peter, Susan, Bruce and me an excuse to hit an old favorite, like Granite Peak, during the day. The avy chute was in great condition, so we popped off the trail at 3300’ and headed straight up the mountain. Peter wasn’t carrying any weight in his pack, so he led the way, making the rest of us look like flat-landers with no aerobic base.

We saw three different groups ascending the mountain via three different routes. We all converged at the top for one big party, which included a corgi needing a snow bath. Don’t we usually do this with sand on the beach?

We hung out for about half an hour, basking in the sunshine under the fire lookout tower. Well, everyone basked except Bruce of course, who dubbed the sun “evil.” He stayed under the tower in the shade - probably the smarter move.

The way down involved four linked glissades that took us all the way to the bottom of the avy chute. This is the top of #3.

The red dots show our route. We would have had an unbroken run to the bottom of the avy chute if it weren’t for the grass (visible). Not bad though for mid-May.

I have a great video of the final glissade, but it needs to be rotated 90 degrees. Does anyone have the software to help me do that?