"Beep beep beep!... Beep beep beep!..."

3:30 a.m., "Oh parc! I hate this," I thought as I glanced at my watch.
"Coach, time to wake up."  No reponse.  I could hear Seve rustling in his
tent next door, no doubt preparing for the long day ahead.  "Coach, time
to wake up."  No response.  More rustling in Seve's tent.  I lay back down
to rest a couple minutes longer, as Coach no doubt was thinking, Seve
would take far longer to be ready than we would so there was no need to be
up just yet.

After a few extra minutes of feigned sleep Coach started to stir.  I took
his lead and started to reawaken myself. "Parc, I hate this," I continued
to think.

Time flies early in the morning, after packing our day packs, grabbing a
meager breakfast (cold instant oatmeal for Coach, granola for Seve and
four or five Nutrigrain Bars (tm) for me) it was all of the sudden 5 am
and we were starting our way up Avalanche Gulch from Helen Lake.  A bit
earlier we saw a few lights high up near Red Banks, now we saw few signs
of other climbers.  Skis on our backs, crampons underfeet, mountaineering
axes in hand, we slowly trudged upwards.  Almost two hours later and we
were in the neighborhood of "the Heart," which was still almost entirely
snow-covered.  The pitch, which had been steepening, seemed to mellow ever
so slightly above the Heart.  I alternated between French technique and
front-pointing and a dratsab combination of the two.

There was virtually no boot ladder up the Main Route, mainly because most
people ascended when it was either too hard or too soft to form a good one
and people had various ways of attacking the steep slope.

We went up through the left end of the Red Banks.  The snow was pretty
thin, icy and wind scoured.  Where it was thin, loose rock lurked beneath.
Above the Banks we hiked just a little further until we reached a flat
saddle just above the Konwakiton Glacier.

http://www.uvm.edu/~mkulas/fvt69.jpg
http://www.uvm.edu/~mkulas/fvt70.jpg

 I dropped a large load... what a relief... and packed it up.  Our trio
continued up a grueling hill that led to the base of Misery Hill, but not
before we glanced down towards our base camp.

http://www.uvm.edu/~mkulas/fvt72.jpg

The climb continued up Misery Hill.  We took our time.  We were not
lacking energy, but at 13,000 feet we could not just sprint upwards.  So,
we took our time and continued to plod upwards.

Misery Hill: http://www.uvm.edu/~mkulas/fvt73.jpg

At the top of Misery Hill was a long flat stretch that led to the summit
cone.  It was a welcome relief.  Since there was no good skiing above
here, I ditched my skis and poles, while Coach and Seve left theirs at the
far end of the flats.  Fortunately, there was a nice path that
switchbacked up the summit cone.  Despite the strongest and most noxious
sulfur fumes I've ever suffered through (we were hiking just above a
fumerole and the ever so slight breeze was wafting it up my nostrils,
until I plugged my nose like a child eating brussel sprouts), it was a
rather painless hike up to the summit ridge.  A short scramble over some
loose rock, and we were at the summit register.  Whoooo hoooo!  There were
several people who were just leaving and soon we had 14,162 all to
ourselves.  Not a cloud in the ski.  Warm.  Sunny.  Bees buzzing about (no
joke).  We felt as if we were on top of the world--and felt incredibly
fortunate.

I scampered nervously up the loose rock to the true summit, where it
seemed to drop off a thousand feet on all sides and posed for a photo-op.

http://www.uvm.edu/~mkulas/fvt81.jpg

Then I resumed my spot next to the summit log case and grabbed a bite to
eat as both Seve and Coach stood on the true summit.

http://www.uvm.edu/~mkulas/fvt83.jpg
http://www.uvm.edu/~mkulas/fvt84.jpg

This was the view below me from where I sat eating my lunch:

http://www.uvm.edu/~mkulas/fvt82.jpg

Oh well, soon it was time to leave the summit and start skiing.  A
shortwhile later we were standing atop Misery Hill and ready to ski.  We
chose a line on the North facing aspect since people had not climbed
there.  The pitch was similar to that of the Rockpile's Eastern
Snowfields.  However, afterseveral hundred yards it rolled over and
dropped who knows how many hundred feet onto the top of a glacier.  Not
exactly "no fall," but if you did you had better be able to selfarrest.

http://www.uvm.edu/~mkulas/fvt89.jpg
http://www.uvm.edu/~mkulas/fvt91.jpg

Coach skiing down Misery Hill:
http://www.uvm.edu/~mkulas/fvt92.jpg

Coach skiing down above Red Banks, with Seve waiting below:

http://www.uvm.edu/~mkulas/fvt94.jpg

The snow was great corn in many places, other aspects were quite gloppy
and some hadn mini-sastrugi from windscouring.  Remembering what our climb
throught the Red Banks had been like I cut skier's left to the top of a
narrow shoot through the rock band.  It was steep and narrow.  Very
narrow.  Similar to the Hourglass off of the "Chins."  The best and safest
route would probably be to straightline it.  I reasoned to myself that
this was no different than straightlining a shot in the woods at MRG...
only that there weren't any trees to stop you below.  Any slide would be a
looong one.  A couple hop turns brought me to the bottleneck.  Straighten
them out and let them fly.  Picking up speed in a hurry, I shot through
the narrows and soon was trying to stay up on the rather rough outrun.  I
was able to stop myself just before I reached a band of rock.  THUMP
THUMP, my hear was beating wildly.  What phun!

Seve and Coach took there own separate lines through Red Banks and joined
me over on the far, far skiers left of upper Avalanche Gulch.  We hit the
timing on this aspect just right and the snow was pretty sweet, save for
some occassional windscoured patches.  We took our time savouring the run
back to base camp.  This was the good life.

*  *  *

Back at camp, the crowds had started to arrive, it was afterall Friday
afternoon.  Our extra day at altitude had served me well and I didn't even
feel the desire for an afternoon nap.  Sunbathing at 10500 feet was good
enough for me, basking in the glow of victory.  It felt pretty good to
have accomplished the goal that we had first started planning six months
ago.  It felt even better knowing that I would not have to wake up at 3:30
am again.

By evening there were probably 30 tents or so.  Parties of all sorts.
Vetern mountaineers, yahoos, you name it.  We enjoyed our savory dinner
and spent the evening reading.

In the morning we bagged a run on the West side of the Gulch off of
Casaval Ridge.  Day Number 103.  The snow was pretty sketchy.  Up high in
the shadows there was a crust of a couple of inches with course
sugar-like, unconsolidated snow below.  Sketchy.  When we skied back into
the sun it was super gloppy.  Though we didn't start any wet slides it was
still kind of sketchy, too.

Following our morning ski, we packed up base camp and headed out full pack
on our backs, tihs and all.  We skied out on the far skier's left of the
Gulch.  Up high the skiing was sweet, despite the heavy load.  I was able
to arc wide turns on pretty steep slopes (thirty plus degrees), making
broad, swooping alpine turns.  Down below there were some open western
glades.  Ahh how I love the trees.  Within no time our trio was back at
the rented SUV.  We packed up leisurely, had our picture taken:

http://www.uvm.edu/~mkulas/fvt96.jpg

and hit the road, headed south.  Mission accomplished.

*  *  *

EPILOGUE
We drove down I-5, stopping for a brief swim in a dammed up river off the
Sacramento, until we reached the Bay Area.  That night we crashed at
Coach's sister's place just South of Santa Cruz.  The next day we drove up
Route 1 towards San Francisco, enjoying the California coast before
cutting over the San Matteo and dropping off Seve at the Oakland Airport
to pick up his rental car.  He was staying an extra week, and did the
Mountaineer's Route on Whitney and bagged Nevada's high point.  Seve is a
peak bagger.  Did McKinley in his youth with three guys he barely knew.
He's working on both the NE Hundred Highest and the Vermont 3Ks.  Coach
and I walked around San Fran, checking out Lombard Street, the piers, etc.
Dinner in Chinatown and then back to the airport where we grabbed the
redeye home.  Landed in Burlington just before 11 am and I was at work
before 1 pm.

Back to reality.

--Matt K.

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