I am planning to go back in there and get this peak in the winter, when the snow is more consolidated. At first, I was instigating 7 days for the trip, telling Hamik we need this amount of time (3 days in, 1 day for peak, 3 days out), but he had to be back Tuesday night which restricted our agenda to 5 days.

It was still an awesome, valuable, rare experience to be out there at this time of the year fresh from a major MAJOR storm.

There are a multitude of route options, you can take a safe bet and stick to trails, but prolong the approach quite a bit. There are a multitude of passes you can utilize-one north and south of lippincott is a possibility. I would like to do Black Kaweah in the winter from the East...............

Summit or not, time spent in the backcountry is never wasted IMO. Good job you two.

btw Did you bring along a certain EV2 tent ?

Rob, it has been getting SO MUCH use. Next to our snowshoes it is probably our most reserved item. In fact, I think someone else was using it that weekend, so we took my personal tent (which somehow managed not to collapse under a new foot of snow--whew). Thank you so much again for the sale.

Daria, I think it just happened that I was on FB when Kevin IM'd me--no harm meant I'm sure.

I'm a bit hurt that I wasn't invited to this event. Are old male geezers like me not invited to these outings anymore? That's sexist isn't it?

No, thats ageist. Something ive accused good old bob burd of.....I must not be sexist cus i got a male involved on this trip.

When I was three-and-twenty
I heard a wise man say,
'Give crowns and pounds and guineas
But not your heart away;
Give pearls away and rubies
But keep your fancy free.'
But I was three-and-twenty,
No use to talk to me.

When I was three-and-twenty
I heard him say again,
'The heart out of the bosom
Was never given in vain;
'Tis paid with sighs a plenty
And sold for endless rue.'
And I am nine-and-twenty,
And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.

(Apologies to AE Houseman.)

Daria wrote:Summiting Black Kaweah in the winter would be better than a lifetime supply of orgasms.

Oh, young thing, you just haven't met the right guy (or girl!)

Look how deep the tracks are!!!!!! Trail-breaking misery!

Okay, who did most of the trail breaking?

Wow! We were out at the Portal only a few days before your trip. I'm impressed you made it as far as you did. I would indeed expect avalanche danger to be very high in a lot of areas.

Daria wrote:One of my friends Vitaliy stated "5 days down the drain". Quite the contrary, it was a great training opportunity and we witnessed some beautiful sights.

Daria, Thanks for sharing the great pictures and highlights of your trip!

Knowing when to turn back is the most important mountaineering skill. Turning back pre-maturely, or unnecessarily and you only miss one chance to summit. Failing to turn back when you should and you may miss all future opportunities. And when you do make your winter summit of Black Kaweah, it will be even sweeter!

I log my incomplete summit attempts to show family and freinds that I use good judgement and turn back when all the personal and external factors aren't right. I turn back short of the summit on about 25 to 30% of my outings. Sure summitting is preferred, but just being out there makes any trip a success.