Devil's Slide 1-30-10

[Dave G]

Norris and I had thought to climb one of the north face routes on San Gorgonio, but when Saturday morning came and the South Fork parking area had yet to be plowed, we set our sights on San Jacinto from Humber Park, via the Devil's Slide route. We were able to boot it as far as Saddle Junction, eyeing the awesome views of Suicide and Tahquitz rocks along the way, before breaking out the snowshoes for the rest of the climb up. We were making fresh tracks for the most part from that point on. We made camp at ~8900 ft, enjoyed a cool sunset and an even cooler, but thankfully windless, night and the next morning we set out for Wellmans Divide, more or less following the PCT. From there we traversed a route above the trail, over to and up the SE face of the peak. We topped out at 1p, headed back down to break camp and were at Saddle Junction by dark. After a misguided two hour effort on my part to find my lost camera, we got out the crampons and carefully descended the now-icy trail back down to Humber Park. Norris took a few pictures; mine are in a snowbank somewhere .
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21042415@N02/sets/72157623334972886/

[tinaballina]

Dave G...very nice, it looked like a beautiful day.

[Norris]

It was a cool trip, too bad we both had some misfortune at the very end. Some notable items: There were HUGE iceballs in the trees in a few places, notably just above and below Saddle junction and also in the vicinity of our camp. We were very careful with tent site selection. These things were falling out of the trees all day, very hazardous. Even if you had a helmet on (which we didn't, who thinks to wear a helmet for a snowshoeing trip?) some of these were large and heavy enough to seriously injure you (maybe even KILL you) if they fell from a tall enough tree. See a picture of one in the pics. We nicknamed these the "iceballs of death". Snow camping was fun, you get to make your own camp furniture! Dave carved himself a perfect tent platform and a bench to sit on with a hole for his feet, so naturally I had to copy him

[Blooty]

Sorry we missed you two last Sunday....we passed some others who had camped out at Round Valley, I presume. They pulled their tent and a lot of other stuff on a sled.

"Ice balls of Death" - !

[Norris]

Yeah, we were hoping to meet some mtsanjacinto.org regulars at the summit, but got there a bit late. We navigated and broke our own trail all the way from Saddle Junction to Wellman's Divide. From there we followed a big track till we realized it was going way too high on Jean, course corrected, descended a bit, and continued traversing around Jean. In retrospect, coming from the Idyllwild side of the mountain, and taking 2 days, it makes more sense to go up Marion, then traverse over Jean to the summit. Oh well, next time.

[Sally]

Good gravy, Dave and Norris, that sounds like one heck of a trip! I used to think I was a tough cookie until reading yours and everyone elses TRs. I missed seeing you on Sunday also. And now I gotta get a helmet, too!

[NormaR]

Dave & Norris,
glad you had a great snow camp experience and got to tag San J a new way! so sorry about your camera Dave. been there, done that. it sucks! i sure would have liked a look at the Julia Child kitchen and IceKea furniture you made. sounds like you have a real talent there!!

so Patrick, you're telling us that the 11th winter essential is sand? at least a bucket is less than $200. and as ballast in your trunk, it will give you better traction on ice! (oops Patrick! seems i'm responding to your response i saw to the TR on the SG board.)