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Ryan and Erin had done this one the week before, so I thought I'd try to catch up on centennials. I drove out intentionally leaving some otherwise essential gadgets at home, in part beacuse I didn't want to bother with them, though also to some extent because I thought it would be interesting to try "back to your roots" hiking for a change: no watch, no altimeter, no guidebook, and no GPS. I did take note note of my stereo's time at 7:45 a.m. when I started. I didn't need the guidebook because I've been to Sheep Gulch TH a few times before (so maybe this was cheating). The trail was clear of any snow until about treeline. I had almost forgotten that trails are sometimes steep, and was feeling the effects of this one (last steep hike was a long time ago). The photo on the right shows a north-looking perspective of morning light cresting over mountains to the east. It was high time for kick-stepping.
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I crossed a few run-outs (now resembling something more similar to snow fields) on the way up to the pass. I was starting to get my energy back at this point, so wasted little time crossing over to the northwest to begin the ascent to the pass. On the left is a view of the pass proper. So far so good. The snow was quickly starting to soften however, and I knew things were going to become interesting on the ridge. I brought crampons, and I was confident that I didn't bring them for no reason - I told myself - "tougher work ahead". Steadily I attained a grounding higher than the pass. I took a break on the first rise on the ridge and looked at the route ahead (shown below).
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This ridge is about what I was expecting at first; a few detours to the south along the way underneath the ridge to avoid harder-class stuff on the crest. Picking away slowly, the route was fairly easy with the exception of a few breaks in the rock. It was somewhat frustrating that sections were not continous, otherwise I could make a decision to leave off crampons or leave them on. As it was , I left them off until about 13,700' below some ribs; there was no way I would ascend that steepness without them (Ryan and Erin - I don't know how you did this without feeling a little uncomfortable without crampons - but I saw your tracks). It made little difference in the result, because the snow was rotten on this day - I was postholing backward in crampons below the ribs. I punched my bare hands in to try to climb it with some added support, and eventually started making some forward progress again. This is not a class 2 route in conditions like this, so I made my way up the ribs with some careful scrambling - it was tough to find a spot where I was ready to remove the crampons.
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Finally, the angle relented, and the flat soujourn to the summit went by without incident. I estimate it was 11:00 a.m. since I reached my truck at 1:00 p.m. With all of this undue excitement (come on - this is a class 2 centennial), I was ready to try the wind-scoured Southeast Ridge on the return. This went very well (less steep, and broad except for the base) and I highly recommend this as an alternative for the ascent as well during periods of uncertain snow stability.
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