Ahhhh...this confirms a suspicion that I had all along: parts of the MR can almost seem congested at times, during the winter. SOmeone even mentioned that they had to come down a different way from the Final 400 because others were ascending.
1)Do I understand correctly that the (steep) slope below Trail Crest is the alternate route in Winter, due to the snowed-in condition of the cables?
2) Is a glissade mandatory to exit the (steep) slope below Trail Crest, or could one plunge step down this route? (I have never seen the area except in photos, so I am not meaning to sound obtuse)
B
1. Yes, on the main trail. Not just because of the cables, but because the trail on the switchbacks are filled in with ice the whole way.
2. Glissade is NOT mandatory...in fact should never be mandatory in any situation I can think of. It may go a little far, but I'd say you wouldn't want to glissade on something you can't plunge step. You may
not be able to plunge step, once the slope has set up for the afternoon in the lower half (It can become, in the parlance, "boilerplate" ice), and the only way down might be facing-in crampon work. One might find the switchbacks safer, maybe not. This is a real judgment situation. The best alternative may be a bivy, and wait for the next day's sun to soften the snow. Of course, one has to be prepared for that, and people have often gotten themselves onto the frozen slope, and found that there IS no place to bivy. This gets grim pretty fast.
