January 10: Signal Butte

Kessler and I made a mid-winter ascent of Signal Butte. We had planned to take Shaylee (Kessler’s little sister) as well, but it was -4F (-20C) when we left in the morning so we decided she should stay home this time.

We actually had to walk quite a ways to the base of the mountain because we could not drive all the way there in the deep snow. We broke trail up the mountain following some deer trails, but we ditched our snowshoes too soon (we left them behind because we would be rock scrambling part of the time). Not long after we ditched them we ran into some deep snow and had some deep postholing.

We ate lunch in a little dry alcove in the rocks and then found a route through the rock slabs. We had to be very careful because some the rock slabs were coated in ice. We made it to the summit on a beautiful day. It was slightly breezy and quite cold, but we enjoyed the view before returning to the trailhead right at sunset.