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Base Camp
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- Statistics:
- Date Hiked: May 13, 2006
- Miles Hiked: 9.0
- Elevation Gain: 3,800'
- Hiking Partner(s): Brian Kooienga,
Kevin Smith
- Description:
- The plan
was to head into the Apostles Basin and attempt Ice Mountain via the
infamous Refrigerator Couloir. According to Gerry Roach, this is one
of the premier mountaineering routes in the Sawatch Range and is also
considered fairly dangerous because of rockfall potential. We
ascended the Refrigerator and descended Ice's northeast ridge to complete the Tour de Ice on what all of us considered
likely the most difficult 9 miles we have ever hiked. Despite the
easy stats reference above, we had an extremely difficult 14 hour day due
to soft snow and postholing..
- We were all up around midnight after nominal sleep. Kevin did a
great job getting us up the difficult road towards the high trailhead, but
we stopped about a mile short of the 4WD parking lot after getting stuck. The
initial section of the hike went quickly on a relatively clear and flat
trail to the Apostles Basin/Lake Ann trail junction. At this point,
we lost any signs of a trail and began climbing southeast. It was
immediately a postholing extravaganza and we went from overdrive to 4WD
low in a matter of a few hundred feet. We
were three hours into the approach when it took me about 5 minutes to gain
only 20'. As Brian and Kevin finished the difficult section, I
quickly said I was ready to call it a day and that it was simply too early
in the season with too much rotten snow to continue.
- The rhythm of that early 90s classic "Ice Ice Baby" was slowly fading
from our minds. Brian and Kevin reluctantly agreed that none of us
could maintain the difficult trail breaking required for as long as we
needed to go.
Our decision to retreat was actually made on the lower section of the
northwest ridge of Point 13070. We decided to verify our location
when we quickly discovered that some miscommunication at the trailhead
left us with limited route descriptions and no topo. Joy.
Working off of memory and observation, we decided to head southwest down
to the main creek coming out of Three Apostles Basin and follow it back to
the trail. This worked fine until we got to the creek and
discovered much improved snow conditions. Rather than a hard two inch
layer of crust covering sugar, the snow held our weight making progress
much easier.
- Kevin thought we should hike up the creek and just check out the views
since we were in the area and now had a lot of time on our hands. So
we made our way up the creek to tree line around 11,800' where the basin
opened up. We stopped to apply sunscreen and take a break when we
started to discuss plans for the rest of the day. Kevin and I voted
to continue up Ice Mountain since snow conditions were drastically
better. Brian simply responded, "All aboard the pain train."
We continued to follow the creek towards Ice and then used the
short "Notch Couloir" to access the upper basin. Once in the upper
basin at the small unnamed lake between North and Ice, we climbed the easy
snow slopes to the base of the Refrigerator.
- The snow in the Refrigerator Couloir was not well consolidated.
Kevin was climbing strongly and did an awesome job kicking steps up the
Couloir. I went third, and by the time I hit the steps, some of them
were blowing out. There was a lot of soft sugar. Generally,
the entire shaft of our axes would go easily into the snow. Brian
and I climbed with a second tool which seemed to work well. The
Refrigerator didn't live up to its reputation for being dangerous.
We witnessed little to no rockfall on top of the snow didn't have anything
come down on us either. We took a short break at the split of
the couloir before finishing the crux and topping out. We all
estimated that the steepest section before reaching the notch between the twin
summits to be between 45 and 50 degrees.
- The scramble to the summit was fun, but I bonked fairly hard and had
low blood sugar. I dumped half my water when we decided to abort
earlier in the day, so
the three of us were climbing with limited water. We all refueled
and took about 30 minutes on the summit before descending the northeast
ridge. Of course we didn't have any definitive information on the
route, so I just stuck directly to the ridge on the descent and tried to keep away from
the snow. There were a couple of short sections, including a
15' vertical chimney we descended, that I would rate class 4. The
ridge wasn't as difficult as I expected and before we knew it, we were
glissading down the basin and through the Notch Couloir back to the
creek.
- From the lower basin to the trail junction was pure hell.
The three of us would walk gingerly as if on egg shells to avoid postholing. Brian was particularly susceptive to sinking in thigh
deep because he weighs approximately 30 pounds more than Kevin and I.
We did our best to stay afloat, but it was a struggle. Further down
the drainage I started traversing the south facing side of the creek on
bare spots which worked fine and improved progress some. We finally
found the mostly clear trail back to the vehicle and began the death
march. We accomplished our intended goal, but certainly not in the
most efficient manner. We didn't see a lot of sluffing or slide
activity and there still appeared to be a ton of snow in the mountains.
- There were several "Quotes of the Day", but here are a few memorable
ones.
- "I bet Dragon's Tail looks good this morning." Brian after two
hours of miserable postholing and no peak in site.
- "I don't have one." Kevin when asked if we could take a look at
the topo map.
- "I guess I won't be needing this." Me dumping a liter of water
after we made the decision to abort the climb.
- Maps:
- Click here
to view a
2D
map of the area where this hike is located.
- Photographs:
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