SummitPost.org

Due to a time crunch I'll being heading up Olympus tomorrow morning about 10 am, Heading off to the West Ridge of Grandeur in an hour or so.

I'm planning on starting around 8am tomorrow in case anyone is up for it.

For anyone interested in an update. I did go xmas day. Had some trouble finding the turnoff for the trailhead at first and only got on the trail by 8:50am. Made decent time to Red Pine lake (2h) since the trail was well packed down. Talking to a few locals, I ditched the snowshoes right at the beginning since the snow expectation was pretty low. Now that was a mistake; it didn't look like anyone had hiked past the lake since the latest storm (Wednesday 12/21 I believe). Initially I only had to break trail through maybe 1 foot of powder orso, which wasn't a problem. A little higher up any trace of old footsteps disappeared and I decided to climb up a little ridge to get a better view of the terrain and soon found myself in waste deep powder. At that point I pretty much thought about turning around since I wasn't making any progress. Then I spotted some skitracks and an old boot trail on the very last section of the headwall to the ridge. Plowed myself through the snow to the skitracks and had some firmer ground. I had wasted a lot of time by now but if the peak above the lake is actually the summit, I thought I had a fair chance to make it before my turnaround time, so I climbed up the headwall to the ridge and then noticed the Pfeifferhorn is still a little further. Unfortunately it was 1:50pm by now (I wasted 3h on this short section!) and I had set myself a firm turnaround time of 2pm, so I headed back down. Back at the car around 4:45pm.

So, in short, take snowshoes, follow my trench and you can now easily climb the Pfeifferhorn . You'll see one spot where my boot track goes straight and also to the left. Keep going straight; that's the path I took back. The one to the left is wrong.

All in all, a nice day out and a very attainable peak with snowhoes or skis.

It sounds like the snow is still horrible out there. Nobody likes it. Neither peakbaggers nor skiers. The damage I've been seeing on skis this December is pretty entertaining though.

Gafoto wrote:It sounds like the snow is still horrible out there. Nobody likes it. Neither peakbaggers nor skiers. The damage I've been seeing on skis this December is pretty entertaining though.

Yeah, it's unconsolidated enough up high that's it's annoying for climbing but on the other hand, not deep enough to avoid hitting rocks on skis.

I hit the Pfeifforhorn on Wednesday. Was a fun climb, entirely free of avalanche danger (as long as you don't wander off the main route). Met a Lithuanian couple who forgot their snowshoes. Poor bastards.

Great photo... thanks!

Gafoto wrote:I hit the Pfeifforhorn on Wednesday. Was a fun climb, entirely free of avalanche danger (as long as you don't wander off the main route). Met a Lithuanian couple who forgot their snowshoes. Poor bastards.

Nice! Yeah, I didn't bring any showshoes either. Took me 3h from the lake to the summit ridge. So much for "no snow" LOL

Who is wearing a harness btw?!

They brought a rope and some pieces of pro for some odd reason. They were from Chicago and didn't really have the proper footwear so they did the entire route in...AT boots with crampons. Interesting choice.

Gafoto wrote:They brought a rope and some pieces of pro for some odd reason. They were from Chicago and didn't really have the proper footwear so they did the entire route in...AT boots with crampons. Interesting choice.

Flatlanders LOL