| After a week of no new snow, the final weekend of winter seemed like the best bet to bag Evans via the Northeast Face. Clay and I failed to ever leave the road five weeks earlier when high winds thwarted our attmempt. This time, the weather promised a good bid and we started out at 7:00 a.m. The morning started out a little windy, but was not noticeable once we were up the road through the trees. We were making much better time not lugging all the overnight gear we had. Not using snowshoes added to our speed as well. Below Clay is walking the road near treeline. After a little over an hour, we reached the end of the road switchbacks before the turn on the West side of the first point above treeline. This was mile marker 4. The wind came back for a short spell as we crested the ridge via a snowslope to avoid the switchback. |
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| On the bottom left is a view of the road at mile marker 4 towards Evans. We continued to make good progress and traveled the long road to arrive where we set up camp on our previous attempt. It was 10:00 a.m. at mile marker 8, and once again Evans was in our sight. There were a few spots where drifts had covered the road completely and require careful traversing. On the bottom right, Mount Evans seems so close, but yet so far away. Approximately 2 more miles remained, and we continued to the high point in the road before it loses 200' in dropping to Summit Lake. It was beginning to get rather warm, and my thermometer read 43 degrees. We completed the final mile to the base of the Northeast Face and took a short break. | |
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| At 11:00 a.m. we began ascending the face up a series of snowfields and bare spots. After 9 miles in, t | |