In case you haven’t figured it out, both the blog and the Dirtbag are in boring winter mode. Posting will be sporadic until sometime around next June. If you want to keep up, you can subscribe to receive posts by email (somehow), or add the feed to your RSS reader of choice. Otherwise, check back again next June. Thanks for reading — I hope this season’s edition has been informative and/or entertaining.
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September 24, 2016
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September 24, 2013
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What? You don’t own any winter gear? As fast as you are on your feet, I’d love to hear about some “speed runs” on two planks…
I’m also thinking the “hell on earth” Guyot to Joe Devel traverse would be much more tolerable with snow covering the peaks. I’m trying to convince myself of this so that I don’t have to go back for what will probably be “Strike Three” if I wait until next summer to try again. Winter/Spring solitude above the Miter Basin… (multi-day, of course)
I own slowshoes and warm clothes, and do manage to get out for some winter stuff. I’d love to try speed-skiing peaks, but AT gear is frighteningly expensive. One of these years…
How did the Guyot to Joe Devel traverse go this time around, anyways? I suppose it might be better with snow, though the 3rd class parts could be tricky. It would be sweet if you pulled it off.
Attempt number two had me follow your advice… I crossed over Cottonwood Pass and was past the Lower Rock Creek crossing looking up at Guyot with a splitting headache. (Made lots of sense since I had dropped down a few thousand feet.) I slept for about an hour with no improvement, so I headed back home via Army Pass. Cool terrain! And easier than I expected it to be. Approximately 30 miles for a ZERO day.
I went back a week later determined to get it done, but just rolled over when the alarm went off. When I woke up, I did a quick jaunt up Langley in well under four and somewhere near seven for the round trip. I was kicking myself on the way back to the car for “wasting” such a good day (for me) for only Langley.
Doing the traverse in a day would definitely be an Epic and you’re right about it being a LONG day!
I’m thinking about using the traverse below Candlelight and Irvine to get to Arc Pass to drop down into the Miter Basin. Like I said, it would have to be a multi-day in Winter or Spring. Of course, all of this would depend on getting the motivation to break out the AT stuff again. I was supposed to do a bunch of BC stuff last winter, but instead, spent a lot of time in the far southern Sierra on a motorcycle.
You should talk to Doug Jr. He knows lots of ski people and they sometimes have a tendency to dump their old gear, for new, at rediculously low prices. I was complaining to him a few weeks ago about my AT boots being too soft. His response was a quesion about what size I wear. When I told him, he offered to get me a pair for nothing.