Sat, Jul 7, 2007
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Etymology |
Story | Photos / Slideshow | Maps: 1 2 | Profile |
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Though the trail for most of the way until Minaret Lake is uninteresting, it
was delightful at night with cool temps (50F) and a half moon overhead. It sure
beat the daytime heat that usually plagues one on this trail. Shortly
before 6a, my first view of the Minarets coincided remarkably with
sunrise. A
faint red glow turned to orange and the brighter light as the sun rose over
the White Mtns to the east. I
continued on to
Minaret Lake and then up to
Cecile Lake where I arrived at
7:15a. I took a short break to put on some sunscreen, get out my sunglasses,
and put my headlamp back in my pack. Heading up to
South Notch, I found the
snow already soft, though the sun hadn't been on it long - it was the same in
the shade, so I deduced that it hadn't gotten below freezing overnight. The
snow is melting out quickly on the north side of South Notch and was already
split into two sections with dry rubble in between. I used my
crampons and axe as much as possible to avoid the loose sand and talus and make
speedier progress. The crampons may have been overkill on the heavily
suncupped slope, but the axe proved helpful.
I reached the top of South Notch at 8a,
and as soon as I had my crampons off
I started traversing around the northwest side.
Adams Minaret rose to the west and
my initial plan was to climb it from the saddle between Adams and Michael
Minarets. But in surveying the closer East Face, it looked like a route could
be found up a wide chute just across the outlet of Amphitheater Lake. I changed
plans on a whim, passed above the
southeast side
of the lake and started up. The
chute was littered with debris but it didn't present any danger - it just made
the chute a bit messy.
The chute
was lined with ledges that made the climb
remarkably easy, class 2 almost the whole way. I could have probably kept it
at class 2 by moving left where a headwall was reached, but I found a
convenient class 3
black rock ramp
leading out of the headwall from right to
left. It all went quite well and was an enjoyable climb. From the summit
ridge, it was an easy walk over towards the summit a bit
to the north. Only the last 50 feet or so was class 3.
From South notch, it had only taken 45 minutes to reach the summit. I found an
aluminum box placed by the mysterious SRC in 1991.
The register inside only
dated to 1995, and in the 12 years since then there were only a few pages used.
One entry made reference to a fine climb along the North Ridge, which I
presumed it meant the
NW Ridge
since there was a near vertical drop down to
Amphitheater Lake directly to the north. Intrigued by this, I started down the
ridgeline and found that it was indeed a great scramble. The exposure was
significant, wildly so off to the northeast side, mostly class 3 with occasional
class 4 moves. I followed it all the way down to the notch between the two
summits of Adams Minaret (the lower northwest summit is closer to the saddle
with Michael Minaret). I considered only briefly a descent down from
this notch,
but it looked like it might cliff out before I got down to the lake.
Instead I climbed up to the northwest summit,
wondering if a second register would
be found there (nope). There is a fantastic view of Michael Minaret's
South Side
from here and I paused to study it some. Secor makes mention of a class
5.7 route up the South Side, but I couldn't see anything I'd be willing to
climb, with or without a rope. Impressive, but far too scary-looking. I
continued west over the lower summit, then down in a spiral to the saddle
with Michael Minaret. Michael Minaret didn't look any easier with a
closeup look.
There was little snow on the east side of the saddle,
and I was able to descend on class 2 rock all the way to the snow
at the bottom. By then the
angle of descent was low enough that I could travel down the snow without axe
or crampons. I passed Amphitheater Lake on the north side, then started up a
shallow chute on Ken Minaret's Southwest Face. With lots of debris in the
lower parts, the rock became more solid higher up where it steepened and
turned to class 3. I reached a notch with a small window located northwest of
the summit, then turned to follow the summit up. It looked to grow more
difficult ahead,
so I traversed right back onto the Southwest Face, continuing
across for about 70-80 yards. This turned out to be a mistake. It brought
me to the part of the face directly below the summit, but the difficulty
increased significantly. I made some progress, but could not make it up the
final 50 feet or so. I tried half a dozen different ways, but backed down from
all of them. I even found a couple of
rusty pitons on one part of the face that
made me think I was on route, but the climbing above was well into the class 5
range. In all I wasted almost an hour trying to find a route up, but it was
just too scary - I even remember thinking at one point, "Ok, I don't want to
die, time to back off." According to Secor, the route is supposed to be
class 3-4, so I finally figured there must be an easier way that I missed. I
traversed back across to the left and found a much easier route back up to
the main ridge on the NW side of the summit. This turned out to be the correct
route and it went far easier. In fact the two class 4 sections just before
the summit were a piece of cake compared to what I had been struggling on, and
just after 11a I finally made it to the summit.
There were two rusty tins holding papers in one,
a small register pad in the
other. The oldest of the two went back to 1962. There were many familiar
famous names including
Charles Wilts,
Allen Steck,
Steve Roper,
Carl Heller,
Vern Clevenger,
and others. I photographed the pages, not many considering
they dated back some 45 years. I felt like this was one Minaret worth earning.
The descent went much easier now that I had the route dialed in, and by 12:30p
I was back at Cecile Lake after going over South Notch again.
It took a bit more than two hours to return to the
trailhead. The
wildflower
displays in the upper part were quite spectacular,
but lower down the flowers ended and the heat and sand combined to make the
trail drag on. Fortunately the whole outing came in at a relatively short
10.5hrs, and overall was a great time.
This page last updated: Wed May 28 08:56:14 2008
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