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Trip Report - Mt. Sherman (14,036)
December 28, 2003
This would be my first calendar winter climb for the 2003-2004 season. I began a small project last winter to try and see how many fourteeners I could climb in calendar winter. Although I began winter climbing during the 1998-1999 season, I was surprised to see that I had only done 3 fourteeners in calendar winter by the beginning of last season. I managed to add 6 more last season bringing my total to 9. There were a few that I climbed in winter conditions, just missing calendar winter. One of these was Mt. Sherman - I had last climbed it on March 25, 2000 - missing winter by just a few days! I knew this would be a short day, which was ideal for a day like today with very cold temperatures and gusty winds. My brother Jim is more interested in climbing all the fourteeners a second time rather than climbing them in calendar winter, so he joined me today for his second ascent of Mt. Sherman.
I was able to drive a little further up the road to Leavick than I thought I would be able to. I probably could have driven at least as far as the mine at Leavick, but Jim and I wanted to gain 3,000 feet so we parked on the left shoulder of the road after passing through a 3-5 inch deep drifted area. I took a waypoint on my GPS of this spot, and discovered at home after the climb that we started at 11,120 feet. So today's elevation gain was only 2,916 feet. Oh well - I'm still counting it!
The road was covered in snow from where we parked, so we started out wearing our snowshoes. Little did we know that much of the road ahead of us was blown dry. We stayed on the road until just before intersecting a drainage originating from near the White Ridge - Mt. Sherman saddle. Our route today was to head up to this saddle, since this was also a good route when we last climbed this in March of 2000. Despite some steep terrain below the saddle, most of this terrain is wind-scoured and therefore very safe. This also allows us to avoid the cornice that always forms on much of the ridge between Mt. Sheridan and Mt. Sherman where the standard route goes. The terrain from the road to the saddle was mixed with everything from small pockets of deep snow, hard wind-hammered snow, wind-blown grass, and some scree just below the saddle. We saw some footprints in the snow as we neared the saddle, which we would see from time to time the rest of the way to the summit. We didn't go to the actual saddle - we just headed more directly up the gentle upper southeast slopes to the summit. Jim arrived at 10:17, and I arrived 5 minutes later. Our stay was brief since it was very cold and windy.
We both had worn our snowshoes all the way to the top, but I wanted to try making the entire descent without them. Jim kept his on until we reached the road, but I was able to pick my way through the bare spots and harder snow, only post-holing in the softer stuff occasionally. Once we were on the road Jim removed his snowshoes. We followed the easy road back to our vehicle, arriving at 11:48 - 4 hours and 4 minutes after we started. |
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