On June 17th 2008, Brad, Jeff, Luke and I got a 4am start on this one. Luke set a fast pace on the bushwhack section of the hike but everyone kept up because he was the only one who remembered to bring bear-bells. The snow climbing was pretty straight forward and uneventful but after the sun came up it turned into the hottest day I’ve ever had in the hills.
There was a lot of avalanche debris and deep cut runnels brought on by two days of hot weather after a long cool spring. Just before we got to the moraines, I watched an oven sized chunk of ice free fall from 300’ of of a cliff band on the South flank, it started a good sized mush slide that obliterated Jeff and Luke’s tracks. We watched a few more large avalanches come down late in the morning after we’d made it back to the lake.
Moran from Jackson Lake. The descent starts from the narrow but obvious chute left of the summit. Click to enlarge
Brad and I nearing the top
Jeff, Luke and Brad admire the view from a moraine hump half way down the mountain.
