I somehow managed to hook wink (um... persuade) Mark and Stave to go on their first snow shoeing trip with Lance and I on Sunday. It felt strange driving to Palm Springs in the daylight wearing snow gear when a week before I'd hiked Skyline in shorts and tee-shirt. Tina also decided to rent snow shoes and joined us. In the boarding area, Mark told me that he had come well prepared to go snowshoeing with me -- he had packed a satellite phone, personal locator beam, and notified Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit to be on standby. We all had a good laugh.
Our first challenge on the day was negotiating the ice on the concrete ramp. The guys soon had enough and headed off the side of the ramp into the snow about halfway down. Tina and I followed and soon found ourselves mired in snow almost up to our waists. The second challenge was locating the Adventure Center to rent snowshoes for Mark, Steve, and Tina. (Lance and I had MSR Lightening Ascents). I had a bad feeling when I saw a bag of Atlas snowshoes sitting outside the center. The woman who helped us indicated that a person had almost died from hypothermia the day before.
Once outfitted, we headed to the ranger station for the permit and were soon following the beaten down path to Round Valley. Steve and Mark kept making quacking noises as they hiked -- something about those snowshoes
We took a fuel and picture break at Round Valley before heading up the beaten down path (thanks Kathy W and others) to Wellman's Divide. The view from Wellman's was particularly exquisite due to the new snow and crisp blue sky.
There was no trail from Wellman's, so we opted to start going uphill. Even with snowshoes we sank a fair amount and the going was rough. I led until I came to a place where I couldn't make any uphill progress -- I kept sliding back downhill. Lance took over breaking trail and we continued on a fairly steep ascent in the direction of Jean Peak. I heard a voice behind me that wasn't recognizable and discovered that other people were following us. A nice fellow from Italy named Alberto took over breaking trail. Alberto and Lance alternated leading and we continued to struggle uphill towards what appeared to a peak. The last 250 ft vertical feet of Skyline was a walk in the park by comparison.
Upon reaching this point on the ridge, we had to clamber over, around, and through a pile of rocks. I got stuck between rocks several times due to the snowshoes and my language started to melt the snow. Just when I thought we had reached our objective, I saw Lance's prints heading downhill towards a saddle slightly below Jean Peak. After the arduous climb through the soft snow and scrambling through the rocks, we'd decided we'd had enough and took a lunch break.
The beginning of the descent was a bit unnerving due to the grade and softness of the snow. Mark's snowshoes were much too long and tortured his hips and legs on both the ascent and descent. The tops of his snowshoes also collected snowballs the size of footballs. He observed that it was like dragging a ball and chain. We rejoined the beaten down path as we got closer to Wellman's. Lance kindly gave Mark his snowshoes and brought up the rear sans snowshoes.
We were happy to arrive at the concrete ramp and rip off our boot weights. We battled our way uphill through the tourists. The tram station was jam packed, so we opted to skip the bar and caught the first available tram down. Once again, the original Las Consuelas provided excellent sustenance and refreshment before the drive home.
Miles of smiles in the snow,
Ellen
