Here it is in all its glory.
When I met up with Sergio, we decided to throw in an extra dinner "just in case". Why not, I was carrying around a 110 liter bag, figure I got the room. It turned out to be a good call. On the approach we hiked to the moraine camp sites, just below the lower saddle. That night, it rained.. i yelled outloud some expletives to mother nature and then all that rain turned to ice with a few inches of snow on top. Dang!!
Next day heaps of people were coming down from the lower saddle, not even giving the mtn any effort because of the ice. Some did, and reported too much ice to even think about it. Sergio and I figured the sun has to melt things off throughout the course of the day. So we got a hold of our loved ones & told them we'd be an extra day; called up the rangers & asked for another day on the mtn (got it) and figured the 3rd day we'd climb the route. By the way, the lower saddle has cell phone service! Or else, we would of had to hiked back down 8 miles, 5k feet....
So, we packed up everything from the moraine and moved ourselves more up the mtn on the lower saddle. Mostly it was for something to do for the day and also a change of scenery.
Sergio on the lower saddle with the Grand behind.
We ate the extra dinner that evening. I had 3 snickers bars for the following day. 1 for breakfast, 1 for the summit, and one for camp before the hike out.
The sunset from the lower saddle did not disappoint.
Most of the climbing was low class 5, so we simu-climbed a lot of the route (upper exum). We ended up doing the route exactly aside from one spot!!! We went up some fantastic looking arete that went about 5.6 instead of hopping in the v-pitch.
Me thinking when is the climbing going to end!?
Sergio following me up.
Last little bit to the summit!
Me at the top!
Me back down at the lower saddle with the grand on my left. The right sky line leading to the summit was the route we did.
A Parting shot. Until next time...
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