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With a good weather forecast for the weekend, it seemed like a good idea to try
a moderately difficult highpoint. At least that was my logic for dragging Clay, his dog,
and our wives along to start on the trailhead at 9:30 a.m. The trail was very hard packed
and I decided to forego hauling snowshoes up. Our first objective was Bull-of-the-Woods Mountain,
a little over 2,000 vertical feet up. On the right, Clay, Heather, and Leah are slogging up the trail.
The path to the first switchback below it was rather uneventful and quite balmy. Once we reached the turnoff
to the West to head towards Bull-of-the-Woods Mountain, the snow started to lose its
hard consistency. This was the beginning of hard times for everyone involved, though
more so for Clay due to rapid onset post-holing.
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Finally reaching the crest of the trail West of Bull-of-the-Woods Mountain,
we had our first glimpse of what lay ahead above treeline. I was betting on a lot
of scour and easier times ahead once breaking treeline on the ridge. We did see
some bare ground, but it was quite a distance off. On the left is the view West from Bull-of-the-Woods Mountain.
A few sections were difficult as
we punched through three feet deep uphill. We finally did reach true treeline and things
were starting to look up. Unfortunately, the trail that traverses the North side of the
ridge was covered with unlevel snowfields. We opted to traverse the slope gradually
upward towards Frazer Mountain. Things started to deteriorate upon reaching the
summit of Frazer - When I pointed out the furthest prominence to the West (Wheeler Peak), it was enough for the girls to find their way down to the trailhead.
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Clay and I made a decision to continue on, albeit 1:00 p.m. already. After some
brief discussion and despite a newfound intolerance for snowfields, we crossed La
Cal Basin from the North to semi-bare terrain leading up to Point 13,045. La Cal Basin is
seen in the photo on the right. This was
a trying period, and quite time-consuming. When we reached the snow-free grassy slopes,
our progress improved, and we were gaining elevation again. Once again, using trail was
impractical, so we contoured upwards on a diagonal headed Southeast. This was fairly easy
in comparison to using the trail up to Bull-of-the-Woods Mountain, though our stamina was
suffering. The strain of the relentless post-holing was taking its toll, and
we patiently acquired Point 13,045.
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Clay was discouraged to see that Wheeler Peak proper was some distance away with
Mount Walter in the way of our path. To boot, the wind that had been blowing constantly
above treeline was much more noticeable at this point. The route was very corniced and likely dangerous
for the inexperienced. On the left is a view of Mount Walter from 13,045'. Luckily,
a very steep cornice below Mount Walter was avoidable by traversing on the West side,
and it intersected with the main route. We were tired enough that the elevation drop
from Mount Walter to Wheeler was more than mildly disappointing. We reached the highpoint
at 3:30 p.m. (six hours for 6.5 miles).
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