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Mt. Baring Scramble Beta - 2008

Last post 06-05-2008, 4:51 PM by Steviepinhead. 3 replies.
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  •  05-28-2008, 12:50 PM 12789

    Mt. Baring Scramble Beta - 2008

    Has anybody scrambled Mt. Baring this season?

    What conditions did you encounter, particularly in the steep forest section--crampons needed?--and on the snow "step" at the top of the avalanche chute as you turn left toward the summit.

     If anyone has any info, it would be appreciated if you could either post it here or PM me by this Friday daytime--May 30!

     Thanks in advance--The Pinhead! 

  •  06-04-2008, 12:00 PM 13545 in reply to 12789

    Mt. Baring Scramble Beta - 2008

    For anyone who might care--looks like our posting and readership are pretty minimal at present, wah! Crying--here's what we encountered this past Saturday 5/31 at Baring:

    Road: pretty much melted out to the TH and no major downed trees or other blockages, though do keep an eye out for overhanging or leaning branches and small trunks infringing partway into the road.

    Steep forested slope: there's an avalanche which has swept rocks, logs, and snow down onto the abandoned road, just before you get to the stream area which marks the "trail" up the north flank of the south spur of the peak.  The blockage on the road itself is no big deal.  Because we had a couple of relative novices with us, we didn't take advantage of this potential, brush-bash-avoiding route.  I suspect you could just kick steps up the consolidated avalanche debris path for quite a ways.  If the snow tongue goes up that high, you may eventually run into the rock band.  At that point, you might have to cross the hillside to the left or east to hit the "usual" avalanche gully (the one that's either above or just slightly left of the stream), which at the moment is in good condition and will allow you to just kick on up to the top of the ridge.  I can't guarantee what any such sidehill traverse would be like, though, since we didn't go that way.  As all this suggests, there is still some snow, even in the stream, "trail," forested sections, but it's mainly confined to the old and new avalanche gullies and to the highest portion of the slope.

    Ridge Run: Again, more snow than usual.  Otherwise, no difficulties.  It looked like a small party had preceded us--hard to tell if it was earlier the same day (though we didn't see definite "out" tracks, so maybe...) or as much as a week earlier...

    Steep Snow Slope (to south of ridge): this is the section where, once you encounter the first gnarly prominence, you drop off the ridge to the right or SE, stay below some rock fingers and, then, once past them, turn up through steep open forest to roll over to the bottom of the couloir that leads up between the main and secondary summits.  Crampons (and helmets!) are often advisable in this area in early season, because a slide on hard snow can be difficult to arrest until hitting, say, a good-sized tree.  We found some hard snow in this area, interspersed with plenty of melted-out tree wells, but managed without crampons.  Apparently, the group "ahead" of us had also proceeded without crampons.

    Because of our relative novices, and a late start, we didn't get all the way to the couloir, but enjoyed a pleasant lunch in the intermittent sunshine. 

    So, I have no idea what the at-times challenging snow "step" that leads up and out of the top of the couloir is like.  Based on the other snow we did encounter, I expect that the couloir itself would be fairly consolidated and a blast to glissade on the way out.

       

  •  06-04-2008, 11:36 PM 13549 in reply to 13545

    Re: Mt. Baring Scramble Beta - 2008

    Stevie, you were following our Mountaineers party on Saturday morning.  We summited, and as you can see from the pictures in the link below, the step to the left of the col is 60 deg snow.  During our descent at 6:30, Emi slipped on snow around 3700', and slid until hitting a tree/rock.  She fractured her right tibia and fibula, but fortunately suffered no other serious injuries.  Roland got a single cell phone call through before 7:00, and unbeknown to us, Everett mountain search and rescue was notified and mobilized Saturday night.

    Long story short, the search and rescue volunteers did a fantastic job, Emi made it to the hospital before noon on Sunday, and she was released from the hospital on Tuesday morning.  Many thanks to our leader, Justin McClellan, and the rest of our party for handling the MOFA process well.   I couldn't be more impressed with the organization, skill, and effort shown by the search and rescue team who got to us at 12:30am on Sunday morning!  They escorted three of us down the mountain, and then lowered Emi using ropes and a litter.  As we descended, other rescue teams were bringing up additional rope, and preparing to build anchors.

    These pictures show the conditions for the route:
    http://picasaweb.google.com/larry.neher/MountBaringScramble?authkey=5CBzz2qkIxc
     

  •  06-05-2008, 4:51 PM 13552 in reply to 13549

    Mt. Baring Scramble Beta - 2008

    Ouch!  Sorry for the injury, but glad that the rescue went well!

    When I was looking for beta, I didn't search "ahead" in time to see if there was a Mounty trip going.  Even though we were a private party of only four, I probably should have done so, just to avoid crowding the route with semi-Mountaineers.

    When our novices read about your accident, Larry, they're probably going to be very glad that we turned them around when we did...!  Hmm

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