March 6, 2010, Cadaver Gap

Lynn, River, Adrian and I went for a 3-day summit attempt last weekend. It turned into a 4-day epic that I will detail later. Here is the first report.

We skinned up to Muir on Friday, slept in, then left to climb over Cathedral Gap at about 11:30 Saturday. Weather was beyond gorgeous, snow was very skinnable, with only a 2-3 inch soft surface/wind crust. We easily boot-packed the last 100 feet and kept the skis on our backs for about 200 yards to traverse the icy stretch to Ingraham Flats.
The large crevasses at the entrance to the top of Cadaver Gap are still very filled in, unlike further up the Ingraham, an adventure I will cover later.

The three of us stopped for lunch and watched the horde (50+) down at Muir and on the snowfield. Our entire party was not up for skiing it, so with River poised at the top to watch my descent, I  stepped in (heart pounding thinking of way too many people watching me... Don't fall idiot..someone has a huge zoom lens on you now and will get a great picture just as you slide into the bergschrund!) The top of the Gap is mostly rime ice with lots of exposed rock. It was soft enough in the afternoon sun to hold a good edge, and moving down towards the top right side chute, windblown fluffy goodness was found..if only for about 30 ft. I traversed back to the sunny skier's left, where the 1/2 inch deep crust shattered when I passed and raced by me as I cruised several great turns in compact snow. I let the crystal symphony clear by me as I took the last 8-10 turns with a huge grin, gained speed and shot out of the Gap to the left of the opening base crevasse. Up to speed, I took a sweeping right turn and had a beautiful cruise back to Muir. Lynn and River came back through the Flats and skied Cathedral back to camp.

I'll give more snow/condition details in the next report on the Ingraham Direct route which I should post this afternoon. Hopefully pictures too if I can get my card reader to work.