Mt. Sherman Trip Report 04/22/2006

Peak(s):	Mt. Sherman - 14,043 feet
Date Posted:	04/22/2006
Date Climbed:	04/22/2006
Author:	jcwhite

Mount Sherman--Iowa gulch
Great day on mount sherman. Start time 7:30 am Summit time 11:00am Left the summit about 12:15pm back to the car by 3:15pm (snowshoe trouble) We drove up to the mount sherman Iowa Gulch trailhead snow closure about 7 am and were on the trail by 7:30. Despite the fact that it didnt get all that cold last night, the drifted snow on the road was frozen solid and made for a very fast walk up the 2.? miles to where the trailhead actually starts. However, i would say that it will be a month or two before the 5 foot drifts have melted out. Upon reaching the trailhead we made fairly quick work of the walk across the valley to the gulch that divides sherman and sheridan as it was still frozen. After reaching the gulch we were able to walk up solid snow to within about 50 to 100 vertical feet of the saddle at 13,100. From here you could pretty much pick your line up scree or snow, whichever you prefer. We chose the snow which more or less followed the long ridgeline to the summit of Sherman. The summit is still fully covered in snow, and in looking towards the fourmile side of the mountain it looks to be fairly melted out along the road. The walk down to the bottom of the gulch was enjoyable with a soft upper layer of snow to make for great and fast plunge stepping. Upon turning the corner however it became obvious that we would have to take the snowshoes off our backs for the first time, the walk across the valley was too soft to not have skis or snowshoes on, but that was nothing compared to the post holing i experienced even with full sized snowshoes. My suggestion would be to start much earlier than we did and walk back down before the snow softens to this miserable slush. On a side note we did see a skier come down the snowfield in the middle of mount sheridan and ski out the gulch and back down, looked like a great line, short but great. Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Mount Sherman--Iowa gulch

Great day on mount sherman.
Start time 7:30 am
Summit time 11:00am
Left the summit about 12:15pm
back to the car by 3:15pm (snowshoe trouble)

We drove up to the mount sherman Iowa Gulch trailhead snow closure about 7 am and were on the trail by 7:30.
Despite the fact that it didnt get all that cold last night, the drifted snow on the road was frozen solid and made for a very fast walk up the 2.? miles to where the trailhead actually starts. However, i would say that it will be a month or two before the 5 foot drifts have melted out.

Upon reaching the trailhead we made fairly quick work of the walk across the valley to the gulch that divides sherman and sheridan as it was still frozen. After reaching the gulch we were able to walk up solid snow to within about 50 to 100 vertical feet of the saddle at 13,100.

From here you could pretty much pick your line up scree or snow, whichever you prefer. We chose the snow which more or less followed the long ridgeline to the summit of Sherman.

The summit is still fully covered in snow, and in looking towards the fourmile side of the mountain it looks to be fairly melted out along the road.

The walk down to the bottom of the gulch was enjoyable with a soft upper layer of snow to make for great and fast plunge stepping. Upon turning the corner however it became obvious that we would have to take the snowshoes off our backs for the first time, the walk across the valley was too soft to not have skis or snowshoes on, but that was nothing compared to the post holing i experienced even with full sized snowshoes. My suggestion would be to start much earlier than we did and walk back down before the snow softens to this miserable slush.
On a side note we did see a skier come down the snowfield in the middle of mount sheridan and ski out the gulch and back down, looked like a great line, short but great.

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

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