My only window this week was today, which looked to be good in terms of snow, but not wind. Sitting in the dark back at Bakerville only two days after my 26th run felt anti-climatic. There is still such a long way to go in the challenge. However, I motivated and began the slog. The road was much better this time, as Presidents Weekend traffic helped pack down all of the new snow. That put me in a good mood, but surprisingly, when I got to the summer trailhead, it looked like most people had turned around and only a few had continued on. Oh well. Pushing forward, I was greeted with the usual blast of snow ice wind as I moved through the willows and out into the open. With all of the new snow, a couple sections are pretty sketchy right now - the traverse just below the eastern ridgeline after the Kelso turn-off but before the Grays/Torreys split was wind blown sastrugi, with a nice 100-400 foot potential slide down into the basin with any slip ups. It took me a bit to work my way along, as I didn't bring anything other then my snowshoes and poles to manage the slope. The same goes for the usual route coming back from the saddle, after tagging Torrey's you have to re-climb Grays for about 300 feet before there is a safe section to traverse across - one slip and it is a 2,000' slide. The rest is pretty straight forward, and as seems to be the norm in winter (and NOT summer), I had the entire basin to myself.
The morning light with the wind blowing off of Kelso Ridge...
I tried to capture the wind here... you can see some of it up on Kelso in the light...
I'm pretty sick of selfies, but I liked the reflection in my glasses on this one...
Kelso with Longs way off in the distance...
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