June 12, 2010, Vesper Peak

Tom and I headed off to Vesper today looking for some safer terrain at lower elevation. The first creek crossing is simple but the second one a bit more involved. With some sandals, no problem wading across as we did on the way back in our trail shoes. Without that, some more tricky tree and rock hopping is needed but it's very doable.

The trail is snow free until it about a 3600 feet and then snow covered except for a short section on the peak-side of Headlee Pass. Skinning up through the basin was a bit tedious on the old avy debris but it had melted down enough to make keeping the skis on the better option. We booted the last several hundred feet of continuous snow to Headless Pass, walked a short section on the other side then put on skis for the traverse up and around to the outlet stream from the lake between Sperry and Vesper. Continuous snow from there to the summit and very easy skinning all the way up.

Phenomenal views from the top today with crystal clear visibility. We only set of a few sloughs in one steeper section near the top but otherwise found pretty stable snow the entire way down. Pretty soft snow up top but still fun turning and then really nice on the lower half of the section from the summit back to the outlet stream. The snow conditions in the gulley leading up to the pass were such that it was possible to keep skis on and make turns, although lower down there were a fair amount of small loose rocks on the snow. Lower down, the snow in the basin had softened up enough to make the ski back to the trail quite easy, even in the debris sections. Nice to have flotation for that much of the route down. No significant changes in the stream crossing in the midafternoon compared to morning.