May 26 - Topping Out on Little T

After a botched start courtesy of miss-set alarm clocks and similar trivia, Claudius Loth and Andy Martin suited up and left the Frying Pan trailhead at the inadvertently late hour of 0850. Little T in a day was the objective, and with 7,400€™ of elevation gain and plenty of mileage, the pressure was on. Memories of two previous failures caused by underestimating the length and strenuosity of the route lent further urgency! A couple of huge blow downs at the beginning of the trail were a discouraging start, but the rest of the trail was in fine shape, with none of the major damage experienced in other parts of the park. Snow patches started early and consolidated after a couple of miles. The snow was well covered by tree detritus, and occasional gaps made booting a better option up to the Frying Pan creek crossing. Here the usual rickety bridge was gone, but fortunately a well-placed log a little further up made the crossing a doddle. From here the route was open on easy snow slopes. Looking for the most direct route we skinned straight up Meany Crest, favoring climbers right for the lowest angle. Even so, there was a crux slope of a couple of hundred feet of 40 degree slope which made for challenging kick turns. Frying Pan glacier was in awesome shape and by around 2 pm we were at the 9,000€™ notch on to the Whitman glacier. Previous experience reminded us of how far there still was to go! The skin up the Whitman went easily on firmer corn, until the slope steepened and we reverted to booting up. Claudius sensibly left his skis here at about 10,400€™, but I (less sensibly) elected to carry mine to the highest skiable snow patch. After a short rock scrabble I was able to skin one more patch to around 11,040€™, where the skis were dumped for good. A few minutes scramble on the famously loose rock brought us to the summit at 4:10 pm, 7 hours and 20 minutes from the car. After enjoying the vertiginous views for a while, Claudius unfortunately was forced to leave a partially digested offering to the mountain gods and was unable to eat or drink for some time after. We were surprised to be the first signers in the summit register for 2007; in fact the last entry was from August, 2006. I skied down on €œvariable€ corn, debris and incipient penientes on 40 degree slopes, with one short 20 foot carry over rocks to rejoin Claudius at his ski depot. The upper Whitman provided the best turns of the day, with an inch of soft topping on a firm base and superb views. The Frying Pan went easily, if stickily, with well-baked snow at this late hour in the day. The ski down the face of Meany Crest gave us pause, with every turn initiating 4€-6€ deep €œhissers€ which ran steadily and scarily over rock bands to pile up on the flats below. Careful skiing above the sloughs made it manageable, if a little intimidating. A swift boot down the trail brought us out to the car at 7:40 pm, 10 minutes inside our estimated 11 hour ETA. We were astonished to be the only car at the trail head, and did not encounter one other humanoid all day. Claudius rapidly recovered from whatever was ailing him, and was soon eating, drinking and planning the next episode!