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Date |
Ascent Time |
Descent Time |
| 1st Time |
31 Aug 00 |
4:28
from hut |
1:45
to hut |
Jim and I got up to the Stanley Mitchell Hut a lot sooner than we thought we would, so we walked
over to the glacier to see what the conditions were like. The President is the one on the right,
and the Vice President is on the left. Since Rob and I did the Vice President earlier in the year,
My objective was to do the President. I guess in hind sight, Jim might have wanted to summit
the Vice President as well. Oh well.
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Jim and I got an early start on that day. We left under a star-filled night. We got to the col and
encountered our first set of cravasses. The 'schrund was actually heavily snow-bridged, but right at the col,
there were three large cravasses. Here we see Jim getting set up to belay me across one of the cravasses.
We didn't use the snow picket as the picture would suggest. He was just setting it there.
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Half way up the slope of the President, you can look back at the col and see the cravasses. I remember being
up at this col a month prior with Rob. We were walking around the col uproped!!! And to think....
I could have fallen into one of those. The red line shows how we went around the cravasses. The cravasse
on the left was actually a snow bridge, which was only about two feet thick. The other snow bridge was just
very narrow.
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Here we see Jim and I at the summit. It was very windy, so we were trying to get behind the summit cairn.
We also had to bend down to get into the picture (self-timer). Check out Jim's helmet. For a military
man, this isn't the most conservative piece of equipment.
Click
here for a larger version.
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From the summit, you have an excellent view of the ascent route up the Vice President. If you look
closely, Mt. Hector is in the background.
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Going down through the rock bands was a little tougher going down. Here we see Jim just after
all of the rockbands.
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And finally, Jim and I were back at the Stanley Mitchell Hut. We sat around there for a while and
then we decided to hike out via the iceline trail. What a terrible choice. First of all, there was
no ice on it. Second of all, it could only be enjoyed by someone that likes walking up and down scree
slopes. It was hell. Plus, it took nearly twice as long to get down as it did to get up. I've
learned my lesson.
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