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We departed the Ruby Gulch Trailhead at ~5:30am. Road was clear and parking was plentiful!
We started up the main trail. At about 0.70 miles, there is a slight 'wiggle' in the trail. Here, we turned left and started our ascent of Engelmann. This is a very steep climb with minimal trail, especially through the grassy area.
Engelmann Peak summit via northwest slopes is no joke. This is a solid ~1.5mi grind with a limited trail.
Next up: Robson Peak!!!
8: The route to Robeson Peak, easily the most straightforward summit of the day
It was a pretty simple walk up Robeson (~1mi) from Engelmann, the least difficult and stressful part of the day. Next up: Bard Peak!!!
10: From Robeson summit, looking for a line to Bard Peak. We took some advice from helpful tracks to get started!
From Robeson to Bard, we stayed aways left of the ridge line, successfully avoiding steep snow on this ascent.
11: From Bard Peak, view of the sawtooth, Greys and Torreys, and Grizzly Peak
Bard Peak is a pretty strenuous ~1.5mi from Robeson but is SE facing so the snow was minimal.
12: In and out of snowshoes heading down Bard on the ridgeline to Parnassus
13: Back in snowshoes up the ridge to Parnassus, view looking back at Bard Peak and ahead to a nice cornice on Parnassus
THE HARDEST 1.5mi of the day, an absolute grind up the ridge between Bard and Parnassus leads to the summit. We choose to veer a bit left of the ridge (not obvious in the GPX) to avoid snow.
14: Our descent route off of Parnassus Ridge
We had a bit of trouble finding the right line (obvious in the GPX) to descend the ridge. We know we wanted to be ahead of the low point and a ways away from the slides to the right (towards Woods Mtn). We crossed the first snow section with snowshoes and glissaded the second. After that, the remaining rout was fairly straightforward; avoid thickets and head toward the Ruby Gulch Trail.
15: And finally back on the Ruby Gulch trail, with a promising view of Red Mountain
My GPS Tracks on Google Maps (made from a .GPX file upload):
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
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