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Times: 4 1/2 hrs Avalanche Gulch TH to high camp on the 8th. 4 hours camp to summit. 3 hours summit to camp. 2 1/4 hours camp to TH.
Curse words by me on descent= 1,372
Alpine start above the clouds.
Prologue
8:00pm. High camp at the junction of the CO trail and the climber's trail to the East Ridge of Mt. Yale. Mattie and I had just spent the better part of the afternoon and evening trail breaking with our ridiculously heavy packs up to this point. We stamped out a great platform, set up our tent, melted snow, and ate and rehydrated. We are both lying in our bags, and my legs feel like they've been whacked with a bat. Laying there in the dark, thinking about the route ahead, Mattie startles me by speaking from the depths of his sleeping bag:
Matt: "Does it ever bother you?"
Me: "Does what ever bother me?"
Matt: "The fact that all the times we've been up here (more on that later), we never see another. Fuc*!ng. Human. Being."
Me: "Well, not until now...."
Matt: "Seriously, shouldn't that tell us something?!"
Me: "Like what?"
Matt: "Like maybe we need to have our heads examined..."
Me: "...."
Matt: "Good night. Try not to attract the wild life with your snoring."
And with that, we are out.
TRAVEL
- "Do you know what nemesis means? A righteous infliction of retribution manifested by an appropriate agent, personified in this case by a horrible c***. Me." - Bricktop, from Guy Ritchie's theatrical masterpiece, Snatch.
So everyone has THAT mountain. That mountain that for a variety of reasons, is your nemesis. And although it may seen strange that a peak like Mt. Yale would be mine, what can I say, it was. A looooong time ago, when I was first starting winter mountaineering, I tried and failed twice on Mt. Yale, primarily because I was a noob who had no clue what i was getting myself into. After a very long hiatus from mountaineering, I convinced my best friend Mattie to give the old winter 14er thing a try. Our two previous attempts can be summarized like this:
2012- First time in the mountains in 10 years for me, first time ever for Matt. We got off route high in the trees off the CO trail, wallowed in thigh deep snow for a couple of hours, camped, and got the hell out of there the next morning. Good times.
2013- We actually made it to the ridge this time, but I had foot issues at about 13,200 ft. So we bailed. Again. Also good times. (sarcasm)
After that last trip, I told myself I wasn't coming back. That's it, I'm done, screw this place. But of course, failure gnaws at one's mind like a rabid rat, and when Mattie and I began our discussions about what peaks we were looking at for this winter, Yale came to the top of the list. Naturally.
Mattie: "Let's just put this one to bed, shall we?"
Me: "I hate you."
Mattie: "No you don't. First week of January?"
Me: "Yay".
And away. We. Go. Again.
STRUGGLE
- "It does not matter how slow you go, so long as you don't stop."- Confucius
We drove up from Albuquerque (again) on Thursday the 8th. Parked at the Avalanche Gulch TH (again), and started up the switchbacks (ag....well, you get the point) at around 12:30....
Pretty much last time I was smiling that day.
Mattie heading up, Mascot Peak in the distance.
We had good weather, sunny and a little breezy. The switchbacks went by fast, and at the top we stopped to put on snowshoes as we headed north into the trees.....
It's like.... Groundhog Day...
The section of the trail that bends sharply west, after you side cut a hill for a while, was completely covered by an immense, frozen snow drift. We traversed it by front pointing on our snowshoes, which sucked. I nearly killed myself here on the descent, so anyone heading up there, be careful. We continued on up, occasionally losing the trail, but for the most part staying on it.
The last hour or so was brutal. We were tired, it was getting near dark, and we were floundering off trail through calf to knee deep snow. Mattie was a trail breaking and route finding machine though, and we arrived at the saddle (same place we camped last year) at around 5pm. My legs were SMOKED, so it felt awesome to get the pack off my back. Took us about an hour to get everything set up, and then it was just melt snow, drink, and eat (that Mountain House Chicken Teriyaki was the BOMB, Mattie!). Alarm was set for 0500, and we went to bed seriously questioning the sanity of what we were doing....Again.
Mt. Princeton, from just below our camp.
CALM
- "I asked one of the doctors, Howard Donner, why they volunteered to spend their summers toiling in such a Godforsaken place (Denali). 'Well", he explained as he stood shivering in a blizzard, reeling from nausea and a blinding headache while attempting to repair a broken radio antenna, 'it's sort of like having fun, only different'". - Jon Krakauer, Eiger Dreams
We were up and moving just before 0630. Just like last year, the view of the lower ridge was......Breathtaking? Incredible? Yeah, it's those things too, but to me, it looked intimidating as hell. Again.
Moon over the lower East Ridge. That is NOT the summit.
We ditched our snowshoes at the base of the ridge and started up. Generally speaking, the south side held the snow, the north side held the talus and scree. On the lower part of the ridge, we weaved back and forth, searching for the path of least resistance... As we made slow and steady progress, we were treated to a pretty spectacular sunrise....
Dawn.
Pretty amazing.
Princeton.
As we got closer and closer to Pt. 13,400, the wind really started to make it's presence known, the climbing became steeper, and the views really started to open up. We stopped a couple of times to rest, rehydrate, and adjust or add layers, but overall we felt pretty good as we traversed around Pt. 13,400 and saw this.....
The upper East Ridge. Really?!?
Like Mattie said, it's a mountain stacked on top of....of a whole other mountain!!! UGH. On we went, across the saddle, where the wind sounded like a jet engine and was strong enough to physically move me around.... Now, I know estimating wind speed is an endless past time here on 14ers.com, and I have no idea what it actually was that day, but I am here to help simplify the debate with my own patented wind classification system for winter 14ers... You're welcome.
Class One- Calm
Class Two- Breezy
Class Three- This sucks
Class Four- This sucks and we're outta here
Class Five- Pick me up in Kansas, would you?
We started up the upper ridge, which was steep, with the wind being solidly Class Three. We went straight up the ridge proper, which was comprised of wind blasted snow with intermittent rocks. We stopped once more so I could warm my fingers, which were getting really cold...
Yeah it's windy, but....
And finally, after two more soul-crushing false summits, with the wind now approaching Class 4 territory, we did it. We summited Mt. Nemesis, I mean, Mt. Yale... And you know what? It was pretty fricking amazing.....
Approaching the summit
Smells like.....Victory
View from the top
Pretty much the last time I smiled for the day...
I literally got down on my knees and kissed the snow. All the effort over the years, the disappointments, the SUFFERING...... Was it worth it? What do you think....
We huddled behind some rocks below the summit to eat, and then started to descend.....Which really, really, and I mean REALLY, sucked. I was fried, and the East Ridge is simply not a place where you can afford a misstep. A fall up high on the ridge would be really bad, and that's a lot of understatement. It was mentally and physically very demanding, and took much longer than I expected. The lone bright spot was running into these guys while traveling back around to Pt. 13,400....
We were here FIRST....
Oh, and some sweet views of Mascot Peak, too...
Mascot Beta
Other than that, i was pretty miserable. I fell on my ass at least three times while descending scree slopes on the north side of the ridge proper, banging up my wrist and knee pretty good. Mattie seems to be part mountain goat, but I'm pretty sure he felt pretty low on the fun scale at the time, too. We finally made it down to our tent, packed up, and did the death march back to the truck, getting there somewhere around 5. I think. I was close to hallucinating at that point, ya know? And yes, we drove straight back to Albuquerque, which was awesome! (sarcasm).
EPILOGUE
- "Near the foot of the mountain we visited a yogi who lived in a hollow tunneled beneath a boulder. He pondered our notion of climbing Shivling and said: 'First travel, then struggle, finally calm.'".- Greg Child
See what I did there? That's what this is all about for me: Travel, struggle, calm. Hell, that's what life is all about, right? I don't know why we do this, I have tried and failed to explain it to my family and friends.... All I know is the time we have on this Earth is incredibly short, and if I can spend a small amount of it with my best friend, in a spectacular setting, stripped away of all the day to day BS that we constantly face, then I can forget my discomfort and misery pretty damn quick. Anyone up for the Blanca Group in February?
Thanks and love-
To our families, for their continuing support and encouragement. We love you.
Now I'm done. Thanks for reading. Peace.
- "We missed you Daddy...."- my daughters, when I got home
Peace!
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
... and great read! Thanks for sharing yours, and congratulations for finally completing it!
That route is one of my favorites. Just did my 4th ascent up Yale this summer (and the 3rd via the east ridge). But as I’m only a summer climber, it was interesting to see one in winter conditions (although I did see some fascinating snow and ice up there this summer).
Loved your interspersing quotes throughout your text –– especially the last one! That’s got to be nice to hear after a tough trip!
Nice report and a fun read. I have always thought about doing this route as a winterclimb. Looks like a lot of work and a lot of fun. Nice job sticking with it and getting it done. Thaks for posting!
This was a great read and brought back a flood of memories from both this route and Humboldt (my own nemesis!). However, I believe Stiffler_from_Denver has you beat on the curse words uttered on descent.
You had it real rough! I did this route as a day hike during the 2012 winter...that year without a winter. Felt like June. Congrats on actually earning a snowflake lol
Nice work and great redemption! I did Mt. Yale the first week of December (solo from about 500 ft below the saddle where my partner turned around because of fatuige) and I concur about the ’Class 3’ and borderline ’Class 4’ winds! I had a pretty good near fall scare way up there too...no joke that it’s no place to get hurt!
Are you serious about the Blanca group in February? I’d love to get up there early in the month!
@SHmids– We haven’t nailed down dates yet, Mattie ’s out of town..... As soon as we do, I’ll PM ya!
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