On New Year's Eve, Cary and I started the climbing season with a leisurely climb up Timber Mountain starting from the Ice House Canyon trail head. We hiked up the icy trail about 2 miles before we started our ascent up the ridge of Timber Mountain. We decided to try a new ridge up Timber. We have been to the saddle and also climbed the face of the mountain facing the saddle. This time we decided to climb up the closest ridge the starts just after the 2 mile marker. The snow had a thin layer of crust and a soft bottom so the pace was slow going (see video). We reached about 7820 feet up the ridge before we reached our turn around time of 1pm. We headed back down post holing all the way down the ridge. It was a beautiful day out. We didn't see anyone (on the ridge) or any tracks besides 4 legged critters that inhabit the mountain. The only down side about this was the 2 mile track back along the trail. I would say about 1 mile of the narrow trail was iced over. It was a pain in the butt to walk back on. I slipped 3 times on the hike out. I am now sore all over, not due to the climb but from falling on my butt, shoulder and hands. Cary and I took off our crampons after getting down from the ridge, BAD CALL! Next time we will keep them on until we reach the parking lot! All and all it was a fun time. I am so stoked for climbing season to begin!
Below is a track from my GPS unit. You can click on it and then click "earth" to view it in 3D(google earth). You will need a free plug in to view it in 3D, it only takes a second to download it. You can also click "ter" and it will show you a topo map. Enjoy!
Stats:
Start: 7:50 at 5,000 feet
Turn around 1 at 7,820 feet
Return: 3:00
On Saturday Cary and I headed out to Ice House Canyon to do some climbing. It had been 7 months since the last time I climbed anything with snow on it. We were not completely sure what we were going to climb but we figured IHC had plenty of options. Around 7am we started hiking up the canyon. It had plenty of snow of the ground right from the very start. This meant there was going to be a ton of snow up top. After 1.5 miles of hiking up the canyon we put on our crampons and decided to climb Timber Mountain (8,300 ft). We climbed this mountain last year, however, from a slightly different part of the mountain. The traditional trail leads up Timber from the saddle but we veered up Timber about half a mile before the saddle. It was great to climb again, we switched back and forth until we reached a ridge. From there we followed it to the top of Timber Mountain.
It was a great day, a few scattered clouds but mostly sunny. When we reached the summit it was covered in snow, no foot prints except from one animal. No one had reach the summit since the storm last weekend. Good times! We ate our traditional pizza lunch (one of us cooks a pizza the night before, usually digiorno) and relaxed for 20 minutes. On our way back down we put on our snow shoes and started to descend via the saddle. We soon realized, thanks to a cross country skier, that going down the slope was a lot easier without our snow shoes. We could simply dig our heals into the soft snow and head straight down. We finally reached the trail head at 3:30.
Future climbs:
In late March I am heading to Denver to do some telemark skiing and also attempt a 14er with Cary and Katie.
I also plan on attempting a California 14er in April or May.
Below is the GPS track of our hike. You can save the track and put it in Google Earth for a 3D view.
Stats:
Start: 7am
Summit: 1:00
Return: 3:30
Elevation Start: 5,000 ft
Summit: 8,300 ft
Round Trip Mileage: 5.35 miles
Saturday Cary and I climbed Timber Peak from Icehouse Canyon Trail head. We didn't set out to climb Timber peak, really we just wanted to climb peaks with lots of snow and elevation gain. We started around 7:30 from the trail head and grudgingly hiked up the canyon. The trail had a light layer of frozen snow/ice. It was slippery and hard to hike on considering we didn't have crampons. Our snowshoes would have done us no good on the narrow trail either. After about 1.5 miles of hiking up we decided to veer off the trail and start our climb. The great thing about climbing in the snow is that you don't have to follow trails and you can climb more direct routes. Due to the frozen layer of snow that made the slopes slippery we put on our snowshoes and started climbing. Crampons would have come in handy here but neither Cary or myself have purchased them yet(we're still waiting for our REI dividend). With snowshoes on we had a tough time traversing so we basically climbed straight up. This was one of the steepest climbs I have done. At points I was on all fours climbing up. It was really nice to effectively use my ice axe as well. The bottom picture show me climbing up the slope where we deviated from the trail. After about 5 hours of climbing we reached the summit. Unfortunately, I ran out of batteries in my GPS unit so I did not track our hike. It would have been interesting to see our route up.
On the way back down we took the traditional trail down to the Icehouse saddle and then back to the Icehouse Canyon trail. During that time we took the liberty to take a few short cuts by glissading down the mountain. Cary and I put on our rain/snow pants and had a blast glissading down while also practicing our self-arrest techniques. The video below shows one of my glissading runs.
Along our trek, Cary and I took interest in Ontario Peak which is along a beautiful ridge off the Icehouse Saddle. The peak is now on our to do list. We are climbing San Jacinto next weekend so maybe the weekend after that. Good times!
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