Monday, February 12, 2007

Rooster Mt (The Ark) 2.12.07

had hoped to hook up with someone to join me on this climb. It is not overly technical but I felt I would vastly improve my chances for success. Rooster Mt. is NW of Garfield Mt. above Quartz Creek. Although It ranks a lowly #74 on the Homecourt 100 it does involve over 4100ft of climb. I parked at the end of the Taylor River Road. I have so many fond memories of this area that I always enjoy the day that much more. I was walking just after 0900 giving me plenty of time to achieve the day's goal. There was some patchy snow from the onset but nothing too much. I turned onto the Quartz Creek Road. The road climbs much quicker than some approaches I use so the elevation ticked away quite quickly. I turned off the QCR at around 2350 onto a spur that switchbacks to the basin below Rooster Peak. There are some choices to make as to what road to take I just chose the steepest option each time. For the most part I was never quite certain I was on the the right road. When I reached the basin I felt more at ease with my position. I stayed on the road to just below 4000ft and was happy to find some signs of some previous climber's . The track looked to be a month old but it was reassuring to follow someone who was obviously going my way. My hope was to reach a notch in the ridge between Rooster and a rocky subsidiary hump due South of my objective. I didn't have much trouble attaining the ridge and when I headed North the ridge went quite easily. The ridge became quite narrow at around 4800ft. This portion was about 50 yards long and it was very difficult to tell which parts actually had solid land underneath the snow. I gave it quite a lot of debate before I decided not to temp fate and cross this portion of the ridge. I was little crestfallen to be less than 600ft from the summit and have nothing to reward my self with. I felt lucky the day's weather was cool and cloudy to start and turned to heavier snow showers only to give away to warm broken sun.




approx 10 miles 3600ft of climb 7 hrs car to car

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