Christmas on San Jacinto

[Ellen]

Howdy All

I was honored to join my friend Lance on his annual Christmas hike from the tram. After my experience on San Jacinto last Saturday with Team Artic Wolf, we carried crampons rather than snow shoes. It was about 35 degrees when we started but we soon removed our fleeces as we headed up the Sid Davis drainage towards Tamarack Valley.

Thanks to Lance's excellent orienteering skills, we were soon huffing and puffing our way up to the Miller Saddle. There was evidence of new snow as we ascended the ridge towards the summit. In the final climb over the snow-covered rocks, I said a prayer of thanks for this incredible day, beautiful mountain, and my San Jacinto family.

We enjoyed a leisurely lunch in the sun in front of the hut. My SPOT was in tracking mode when it shot down the steep slope last Saturday and Lance converted the SPOT tracking coordinates to GPS coordiantes. We retraced my descent from the week before and tried to locate the SPOT via his GPS. Unfortuantely, however, the new snow made finding my runaway dog impossible.

We made our way carefully downhill -- sometimes we could plunge step in fresh snow and other times we were on ice. We reveled in the winter landscape and solace of the mountain before returning to Long Valley and the crush of humanity on the cement walkway. I gave both Craig and Patrick hugs as we entered the boarding area. Fern was resting happily following a Christmas Skyline hike.

I look forward to seeing you -- my San Jacinto family -- on the trails in the New Year.

Miles of smiles and hugs,
Ellen



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[Ellen]

Howdy All

I had no desire to battle the crowds for post-Christmas shopping and joined Karin for my second day on the mountain. The sky was cloudy and the temperature was noticeably chillier -- several times my Gatorade nearly froze in my Camelbak hose. We met Mike from Oregon at the ranger station who asked if he could join us. I opted to head up the main trail rather than Sid Davis to give my tired legs more time to warm up. We met NickSJM at the cabin in Round Valley and then made our way over to Tamarack. I overshot the Miller saddle and took us up the saddle between Jean and San J.

The ridge and summit were chilly (mid-30's) but we had little wind. This made it feel balmy compared to the climb with Lance, Indie Jack and Hengst Joe several weeks ago. We learned that modest Mike has climbed Ranier, Hood and Shasta -- peaks I'd like to climb eventually. As we headed down from the hut, we ran into Kathy Wing who had just summited.

Going back, we headed down the Miller Saddle to Tamarack and the Sid Davis drainage. Met NickSJM again at the Long Valley Ranger Station and had a nice chat before braving the cement. A big thanks to Nick and other San J volunteer rangers and SAR members Mike generously treated us to a round at the tram bar before he had to head down. I was finally able to buy Kathy a long-overdue beverage of thanks for her role in my rescue. Sadly, the sun was setting and we needed to get home.

Hoping we get some new snow to play in....

Miles of smiles,
Ellen

[guest]

Hi Ellen,

Sounds like a great time on the mountain, you've been burning up the "trails" this winter, it really is rather addicting.

Let's see, push oneself in magical wilderness & get a wonderful, natural high, (w/ the added liquid help afterwards), or hang around the city, with gobs of people & do whatever else people do, choice is easy I guess.

Hope to hike with you soon,

Happy New Year

scott

[KathyW]

Ellen: It was so nice to meet you and Karen on the mountain. That beer sure tasted good at the end of the day - Thank you!

Kathy

[tinaballina]

Ellen, wish i could have joined you liked plan christmas morning...some things are just out of our control. glad you and lance had a great time.