Lance, Karin and I met Tina and Doug in the boarding area for the first tram. The ride up was more interesting than usual when a man held onto the moving outer rail and kept falling into me. I kept creeping closer to Doug and was finally pushed into his chest by the man falling on me at the final tower swing. At the bottom of the ramp, Lance and I donned our Microspikes to test them on the trail to Round Valley -- they worked very well on icy portions of the trail. We opted to not take the Sid Davis route due to the likelihood of post holing.
Once in Round Valley, we followed our snowshoe tracks from the previous weekend. Lance led. We put on our crampons when we reached the south face (about 9,600 ft). This was Tina and Karin's first experience with crampons and they immediately fell in love with being Spiderwomen on the steep climb. We popped out on the ridge and made our way to the summit.
It was a balmy 25 degrees with little wind. The entire area to the west was blanketed with clouds. While we ate lunch, another Mark from Palm Springs who frequents this forum summited in MSR snowshoes. We'd met him in the upper tram station and he followed our tracks from Round Valley. We could see clouds moving in from the east and started to head down about 12:30. Mark donned crampons and joined us.
Doug picked the route going down and Lance was trail sweep. This time, I had fun on the descent. As we approached Tamarack Valley, however, the snow was softer and we started post holing more frequently. Lance and I removed our crampons. Mark was sinking up to his waist due a heavy pack. Lance recommended switching back to snowshoes, which helped tremendously.
Doug took us down the Sid Davis route from the valley. This was a nice change of scenery and faster though the snow was softer. We rejoined the main trail and were soon back in "civilization" surrounded by screaming kids on sleds and oddly dressed tourists. Rush hour hiking up the ramp was followed by suffocating heat in the tram station. Karin and I cooled off with Fat Tire beers before the ride down and ritual celebratory dinner at Las Consuelas.
Miles of smiles,
Ellen
