Little Bear attempt TR 5-14/15-2005 (nsr)

[Mountain Freak]

Drove down to the Sangre De Cristos in an attempt to Climb Little Bear Peak via the exact same route as last year. Last year we reached the summit, this year we did not.

This trip, just as last year was one of our training climbs for Mt. Rainier. Camped at the Trailhead Friday night and hiked up to our high camp on Saturday at a little under 12,000 ft. We started the hike around 8,000 ft. and went in about 4 miles and gained about 4,000 ft Saturday. We carried a lot of extra weight, and I realized that my pack was much heavier than our Rainier trip last year. Packs weight in about 73 lbs... Stupid, but we made it up to camp in about 4 hours.

Scott hiking up looking at the San Luis Valley


We arrived at our high camp about 10:45 and took in the views.


Scott Chillin' with little Bear towering above


We woke up about 3:00 a.m. on Sunday and began to climb up the long main couloir to gain the ridge.

Here is Scott comming up the steep pitch


And myself climbing above him


The day before it hailed and snowed a lot on us and we soon found out that as soon as we reached the top the the couloir around 12,800 the half mile ridge we needed to traverse, was covered in verglass ice. It would have been really difficult to cross this ridge with our crampons on, with all the rocks. But we couldn't take our crampons off (as we did last year) because of the ice. Being that it is nearly impossible to self arrest on rocks and ice, we decided to turn around. No big deal since we summitted last year, but I was bummed because I really wanted to climb the hourglass couloir again. Ahh well.

Scott descending the couloir


The couloir from the bottom, I glissaded down the whole thing, it would have been great to ski it, but we had enough weight as it was.

[HyRUPz]

Way to get after it MFreakee.

Sangre de Cristo - Blood of Christ. Nice solid 3am hitch it looks like; early birds get "el gusano"

What's up this weekend?

[Mountain Freak]

Lost Rat Couloir. You want in?

[HyRUPz]

Can't decide if Torrey's or ABasin last hoorah ... the Torrey's pic look AWESOME to ski - 3am leave time, alpenglow descent

We will get together in June though - wanna hook you up w/ my bud Phatstixx.

So much to do - damn work ethic!

[Mountain Freak]

Sounds good, we'll definately climb/ski some stuff. There is so much more snow this year than last. I camped on dry ground last year at the same time up in the Sangres... This year we put the tent up on 7 feet of snow.

[HyRUPz]

CDOT clearing Independence Pass for M-Day weekend opening ... 10/20 feet of snow!

220% +/- increase insnowpack vs last year I hear.

Camping out on Indy that weekend - lap it up!