Ptarmigan Ridge Weekend, Sunday, Sept.14/08

  We awoke refreshed after 11 hours in our bivi-sacs to temps just above freezing. There was a sheen of ice on the tarn and the snow was pretty firm, so we took our time breaking camp. Gabe had never hiked out to the Sholes Glacier, so we left Dustin to play on the C.P. snowfield as we joined the multitude enjoying the views along the trail. We saw Dave_R and his wife on their way to the north side of the C.P. By the time we returned from our walk, the snow on the se slope was like butter on hot corn. We placed our packs on the edge and booted up the 150' to the top. It was so good that I had to do it twice. (Photo 1). Photo 2 shows Gabe leaving the top to the cheers of hikers below. We scooped up our packs and continued down; we were able to traverse through the flat section (amazing for September) to the where the trail crosses again. After dropping our heavy packs there, we followed the "S" turns for a total run of nearly 700vf. From the bottom we could see our tracks from Saturday across the valley (Photo 3).

  Dave and Deb suddenly appeared below us as we snacked on excellent jerky and adult refreshments back at the trail. We left them to enjoy our line and boot track; they caught up to us again at the next snowfield near the hairpin turn on the trail. That is also where we meet GregLange and crew. We only used 300vf of that slope, but we also ran the long horizontal snowfield on the next ridge for an additional 150vf. Another hour of hiking and we were opening up the "rewards" that we had left in the cooler. A very successful weekend, indeed; even the border crossing went smooth.