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I was sore from biking the Pearl Pass road for Castle the day before, but headed to Lake City under very unsettled sky. My car made it up the Cinnamon road to the Grizzly Gulch trailhead, where the view of the east face through binoculars was enticing enough to bring my board. The trail to the basin was steep, and this gorge would be a bad terrain trap with more snow. I camped at treeline, and noticed the sky clearing by night.
I purified water from the creek at 5:00 AM, getting one of my boots wet as soon as possible. Then walked about a hundred yards to the snowfield. The east face of Handies displayed a curious y couloir filled in with snow.
I followed some other footprints up a long ravine to the right shoulder of the face. The steps were nice to have since I did not have crampons, just an axe.
I was sunhit a third of the way up. I was still so unfamiliar with this area, even though it was right in my back yard.
The view of the Grenadier Range was excellent.
I rode down the bumpy cornice from the summit, and a short way down the northeast face, then traversed on foot across a dry patch to the entrance of the y chutes.
The snow was starting to thaw just a little, but not enough to let the edges of my board hit the burrowed rocks peppering the sides. It started very steep, and stayed narrow past the dogleg halfway down.
I cruised the little snow filled ravines, and walked back up to camp for lunch and a nap.
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