Headed up with Calicokat Jim and Sally on Wednesday. A nice dusting of new snow over the old ice -- we put micros on right away. We abandoned the trail at Southfork meadows to head up the gully on the right side of Christmas tree hill. Immediately started postholing and donned snowshoes. There were snowshoe and ski tracks going everywhere.
We found tracks up a gully and followed them up. Jim noted that we were headed away from Charleton. I should have listened. The snow was deep, wet and heavy, which made for slow going. We started traversing up a ridge, which I thought would take us to the gully that pops out on the saddle between Little Charleton and Charleton. Unfortunately, we soon discovered that we were actually snowshoeing up the Little Draw, not the intended gully
Luckily, Jim has done the Little Draw several times and kicked in a great path straight up the side of the ridge to the right of the Little Draw. There were a few sketchy sections. Thank you, Saint Calicokat
It was great to attain the ridge and see wind-sculpted virgin snow. We briefly toyed with the idea of heading left up the ridge towards Jepson. However, this would have taken a long time and the safest descent was in the opposite direction -- to our right next to Charleton.
Good sense prevailed and we summited Little Charleton (a new peak for Sally), dropped down to the saddle, then started traversing around the north side of Charleton before finally attaining the summit plateau and finiding the register. Had a leisurely lunch and enjoyed the view of the beautiful San Gorgonio backbone. Sadly, there is still not enough snow to head up the Big Draw or the north chutes of San G -- the last 500 feet are dirt.
We dropped down off Charleton and down the side of the ridge to attain the gully that we'd intended to come up. One of these days I'll come up that ridge with crampons and axe when the conditions are right. Jim said it's really steep and a great winter climb. Glissading down the gully would have been a blast, but the snow was too deep and soft. We made our way back towards Christmas tree hill, staying to the left of our route up. Before too long, we were heading down the ridge with the orange markers for BC skiers. We made the first tracks -- no one else had come up or down that way since the last dump.
Near the base of Christmas tree hill, we swung right to avoid the snow covered marshy meadow and rejoined our ascent route. Removed our snowshoes and donned micros for the long trek back to the trailhead. We'd left at 6:30 and got back at 5:00 -- a very long day. Jim's GPS read 12.8 miles with 4400 K of gain. Jim headed back home and Sally and I enjoyed our customary cheeseburgers and fries at the Oaks before heading home.
Notes: carried snowshoes, micros, crampons and axe. Crampons were not used. I used my axe for the final climb up the Little Draw. I do not recommend going up the Little Draw, even with crampons. The ridge to the left of the north chutes of San G may be the best way to attain the ridge to summit San G or Jepson, but this will require scrambling up the last 300 feet or so in dirt.
Miles of smiles,
Ellen
I sure had fun with you guys. Here's the pictures:
