Needing some "air time" before heading for Mexico to climb the high volcanoes we spent a couple of days wandering around the Sierra and decided that we would climb Stevens from the highway. I learned here that leather gloves do not keep your hands warm.
pretty much came straight up from the highway. scrambled up from the east. it was definitely more "interesting" than the walk up from the other side. nice weather, pretty much no snow, but windy at the top.
Bagged Red Lake first, and then Stevens. Took about two hours to bag both peaks. The descents along the connecting ridge are pretty tricky. We signed the log book.
snowshoed up stevens peak from hope valley, traversed over to red lake and skied back down to the car. conditions for snowshoeing were good, snow was wet wet wet by the time i finally got around to skiing. 3rd time on both peaks. PICS
Traversed from Red Lk. Pk. Blowing snow and temperatures in the low-mid teens. No views at all. Had to dig the summit register pads out of the snow - previous visitor or nature had dumped the contents on the ground.
From Red Lake it was cake. Heading towards the saddle with Waterhouse I would have liked an ice axe-- but then I may have taken a "shortcut" and walked out onto one of the many cracked cornices....
Perfect winter overnighter Date Climbed: Feb 25, 2006
Traversed from Red Lake Peak after spending the night at ~9900'. The views were amazing, temps were warm and what little wind we encountered was isolated to the evening.