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MR 7/30/2017
#51298 07/31/17 08:20 AM
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I hiked the Mountaineers' Route on Sunday 7/30/17. Descended the trail. Notes below:

- Water crossings up: Was able to get through all of them without getting my shoes wet.
- Scramble up to Iceberg lake: there was a section of approximately 300 meters covered in snow where we put on crampons.
- Chute: The chute is filled with snow but I was able to avoid most of it by scrambling up the class 3 section on the left side. From approximately 13.5k to 13.9k ft (my estimate) you needed to ascend the snow field. The snow was super soft and a little loose. I used hiking poles and crampons. The poles were super helpful but the crampons didn't help too much. My hiking partner ended up using poles without crampons. The exposure down the chute made me a little nervous but the snow was so soft you wouldn't slip very far. Once I reached the end of the snow patch, there was a group of five which safely glissaded down the chute.
- Final 400: There is a large patch of snow in the middle. I ended up going to the right and it was a great class 3 section with perhaps one or two class 4 moves.
- Trail descent: Other than taking the short cut from the summit plateau down the talus to the trail, the trail was clear. There was a small section near Outpost Camp that was completely submerged for about 10-15 steps.
- Link to the Strava here:
https://www.strava.com/activities/1109815001/overview

Last edited by BFR; 07/31/17 08:28 AM.
Re: MR 7/30/2017
BFR #51314 08/01/17 08:59 AM
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BFR -

Thanks for the info; I hope you had a great hike. I have a couple of questions regarding your TR;

Were the "dry" water crossings in obvious locations, or did you have to spend time searching for a proper crossing?

Can you tell me what time of day you reached the chute? Trying to determine if a very early start may alleviate some of the soft snow problems.

How long did it take you from portal to summit?

Thanks again,

Re: MR 7/30/2017
TahoeKine #51317 08/01/17 10:25 AM
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The water crossings were a little sketchy but with waterproof hiking boots, it was possible to step on rocks that were either exposed or 1-3" submerged and therefore my feet were dry. The creek crossing right before the ledges was challenging but we found a way to cross it without getting wet feet.

We reached the chute around ~10:15am. For what its worth, the group of five who waited for us to ascend the chute to start their glissade said they had gotten there a few hours earlier and that the snow then was actually a bit hard and they would have preferred to ascend with a bit softer snow to avoid risk of an uncontrolled slide.

We started at 5:30am and got to the summit around 12:30pm. Didn't take many rest stops on the way up. We ended up getting a little off track in between LBSL and UBSL but found our way up via the slabs after realizing our mistake. The only section where we went slow was on the snow section of the chute, which took me about 30 minutes and I imagine a more skilled mountaineer would have taken 10-15 minutes.

Last edited by BFR; 08/01/17 10:25 AM.
Re: MR 7/30/2017
BFR #51325 08/01/17 04:49 PM
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Here are some pictures from the day. I didn't have any good ones of the final 400 unfortunately.

Looking up chute:


Middle of chute, approaching snowfield:


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