This post could also be titled "Into the Valley of Death went the two hikers."
Headed up to the Mill Creek Jump Off with Karin yesterday. My initial plan was to go cross country up Dobbs from Vivian creek as I'd done earlier in the year with Lilbitmo and Tina. We ran into Lilbitmo, Tina, Steve, Fern and Fritz at the ranger station -- their objective was the Galena Gauntlet.
We headed over to the Vivian creek trailhead and then went UP to the right of the actual trail. About an hour or so later after going 1000 ft up a really crappy chute (loose rocks/scree coming down on us) we ran into a big rocky impasse and down climbed. This wasted effort cost us several hours. Rather than head up to Vivian creek again via the actual trail, I opted to head up Mill Creek to the Jump Off. I've never done this -- thought it would be a nice trip with the snow. Also, I thought we may run into our friends coming down from Galena Gauntlet. We headed up Mill Creek and ventured into new territory for both of us. The condition of the snow was fairly good, we didn't post hole too often.
As we got closer to the final steep climb, we could see signs of recent avalanches, which was a bit concerning. We donned crampons and headed up. It became increasingly steeper as we climbed. We could also see and hear rocks coming down from the left south-facing ridge. Karin climbed like a cheetah, I had major crampons issues (kept slipping) with my new Black Diamonds and also chose a bad route. I got stuck underneath a section of rocks and trees which was not stable enough to climb over. Thanks to Karin's encouragement and traversing, I finally reached the ridge. By this time, it was noon and I was spent and bleeding.
We had lunch and I resolved the crampon problem (they were too loose). The ridge was beautiful and the climb to Galena looked like fun, but I just didn't have the physical or psychological energy to attempt it. We made our way down the steep part of the Jump Off and took a short stop to adjust clothing and gear. Suddenly Karin was screaming at me to MOVE and she physically hauled my carcass over to the right. A big rock had been heading right for us. Thus, the Valley of Death moniker.
From that point on, we descended as quickly as we could. Unfortunately, our descent speed was hampered by post holing, which just got worse as lost elevation. As miserable as this was for Karin and I, I didn't even want to think about what our friends would have to go through on their descent.
We reached our cars at about 3 PM and headed home. I texted Tina, Steve and Patrick to let us know when they got down. A little after 5 PM, Steve called -- they were about 45 minutes away from the car. Patrick called a bit later while descending to say it was a great day with the exception of the nightmarish post holing.
As much as I love snow trips, I think I'm ready for some desert dirt
Miles of smiles,
Ellen
