Sid Davis Route to Summit on Sunday 4-25

[Vnthali]

I'm planning on taking the Sid Davis route from the L/V Ranger Station to the summit this Sunday as an early 45th birthday present to myself. My semi-regular climbing partner is unavailable. Looking forward to running into any of the folks from the board. S/F.

[tinaballina]

hope you had a good birthday...

[Vnthali]

Everyday upright and breathing is a good day - thank you for the birthday wishes and the awesome (though brief) Snow Creek trip report.

[Vnthali]

Heading up on the first tram tomorrow morning. Anyonehave a heads up on current conditions on the Sid Davis Route? Looking to go without snowshoes, if at all possible (crampons and axe only on this run).

[skunkboy]

Vnthali,

Have a good safe trip, and tell us how the snow is.

Sincerely
Skunk

PS Happy Birthday.

[Vnthali]

Hello all. I'm on my lunch break right now so I'll have to keep this brief. Yesterday was one of the best hikes I've been on in my short hiking career. While waiting for the first tram up on Sunday, I met Sally from the forum, and together we set out to make the summit via the Sid Davis drainage. I'll post a more detailed account of the events later. Reader's digest v ersion is we didn't make the peak. We did however, summit Jean Peak by way of climbing straight up her east side to the summit. I'm embarassed to say ou reason for summiting Jean v. San J has everything to do with my navigating us south out of the drainage and into the Round Valley camp ground. I will close this entry for now with a thank-you to EMan and HalHiker. My first post detailed a fall I took on one of my first trips. Their advice got me into some self-arrest practice / training with my ice ax. It came in handy yesterday - thank you gentlemen. Sally, I'm looking forward to hiking with you again, and I promise to work on the route finding.

[Sally]

Hi everyone! Tyrus, it was great meeting you and having your companionship on our hike. It was also one of the best hikes in my hiking career, and I've logged a lot of hikes.

I have attempted San J Peak in the snow 4 times (twice successfully) and 3 of those times we have veered off too far to the left. (Hmmm, is this typical?) We realized we were off track when we came upon a campsite marker in Round Valley. Then we encountered some campers that told us to watch out for the "chickory" (or is it chickery) holes. They said a ranger told them about someone who fell through 10 feet of snow where snow melt had undermined it . OK you guys, could someone tell me if there really is such a thing as a chickery hole on San J.? I myself had never heard of a chickery hole!

This time, instead of correcting our direction, we decided to just go with it and head up this giant steep hill that I figured was Jean Peak. We put on our crampons ( this was the 1st time I'd used mine). After much huffing and puffing, we got to the top. Tyrus broke out his new Jet Boil and we had tea and enjoyed the view. Then we were joined by 2 groups of guys. There were 6 young guys in sneakers and cotton shorts, and 2 other guys with nice gear and crampons.

As we were heading back down fairly gingerly with our crampons and ice axes, the 6 kids took off glissading down the hill at great speed. I was picturing coming across them with their heads split open on a rock or tree! Tyrus had a slip and did a great job of self-arrest - wish I'd had my camera out and made a movie!

As we made our way closer to the tram I was feeling nervous that things didn't look right, but we were right on track. Soon our hike was over. It was a real gratifying feeling to have summitted Jean Peak as I had never done it before.

Thank you ,Tyrus for getting me up there (and back!)

[Hikin_Jim]

Maybe they meant chinquapin?

[Sally]

They definitely said "chickery." I'm wondering if they were just pulling our leg, you know, like a "snipe hunt" kind of a thing.

[Vnthali]

Sally I was just working up a trip report for our adventure to the summit of Jean Peak. Chickery or Chickory, we never ran into the mystery danger described by the shirtless camper we ran into in Round Valley. Sally thank-you for a great trip.