Sunday, Feb 8

[Norris]

Norma, Rich, Alex and I caught the first tram up yesterday. We had our permit and snow-shoes on and were away by about 8:30. We left the Round Valley trail at the big rock where it crosses the stream and broke trail up the right side of the drainage toward Tamarack. We seemed to be the first party of the day going this way. We didn’t see any tracks until we got to Tamarack. Apart from a brief stint at the beginning, I didn’t really do my share of trail breaking. Rich in particular did an amazing job, including much (most?) of the way up the steep part toward the summit ridge, when Alex took over. Norma led the way up the summit ridge to the summit. Since I was the only one who had previously snowshoed this particular route, my role was mainly offering advice as to the general direction of travel. It was COLD, with very poor visibility, approaching white-out conditions at one point. We were on the summit by 1:00, and back down at the tram by 4:30. Dinner at Las Consuelas was a real treat after all that work.

[Dave G]

Nice work, Norris! I was sorry I couldn't have joined you guys, but with a temp of 103, I probably wouldn't have been much use in breaking trail . Tram-to-summit is always a fun winter hike; just the right distance so you don't have to stress about being back before dark.

At what point did you gain the ridge? I'm wondering if you took the same route that Norma and I did last year.

Dave

[Norris]

Hi Dave! Yeah, I got your text yesterday morning, hope you're feeling better. Re where we hit the ridge, it was at a point closer to the summit than I normally do, i.e. not right at the saddle. But it worked out fine.

[NormaR]

The Perfect Storm

Wow! What a day! The storm was strong enough to increase the effort to make the summit, thus making the summit all the more worthy. Winter finally is here! Yippeee!

The first tram was loaded with excited snowshoers and ski mountaineers. I was able to meet Karen R and KalicoKat from the San J board at the ranger station. Would love to hike with you someday! We might have hiked together in better weather, but the visibility kept us all in small pods. Not a day to get too far from your companion.

Thanks Rich for breaking trail and thanks Norris and David from Cathedral City for stopping to check your GPS' to make sure we were heading the right direction.

Here are my pix:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ryan.norma8 ... fectStorm#

norma