Dirty Harry's Road 3.16.04

Another nice spring day for me to get out and stretch my legs. I needed something real close today, so I picked Dirty Harry's Rd since it involves very little travel time for me. I climbed Dirty Harry's Peak last year so I stayed on the road unitl only around 3300ft where the road passes a big rockslide. This rock slide provides easy access to the saddle between points 4272 and 4353. As a general rule I try to avoid rockslides in the spring when there is great potential to fall through into unseen holes underneath the melting snow. Lucky for me this rockslides has alot of sun exposure so there wasn't any snow to contend with. I climbed quite easily to near 3800ft where I reached my turnaround time for reaching the gate which closes at 4 PM. This route seems to me would provide easy access to the Upper Granite Lk pond as well as to Point 5335 which I believe is Putrid Pete's Pk.

Ollalie Lake 3.3.04

I just had a small window of time today so I picked something just to get out. I was suprised to find it snowing and sticking on Tiger Summit as I crested the pass. The parking lot for Ollalie Lake trail was just plowed and the snow seemed to be mounting. I made good time up the gentle grade and soon I passed the turn-off for Granite Mt. I stayed on the Ollalie trail until around 3600ft when my time window closed. I hustled back enjoying the nice cushion of new snow under my feet.

Granite Lakes Road 2.18.04

Today's goal was for Revolution Pk. Which is Point 5454 just NE of the terminus of the Granite Lakes Rd at Point 5124. This approach is fairly long and I expected around 7 hours total time for summit and return. I expected some unsettled weather but I was treated to some fairly calm weather today. I made good time to the road crossing of Granite Creek, less than an hour. I ran across a man who had driven just past the creek and was sawing out some of the larger blowdowns that had fallen across the road. I am not sure who was more suprised to see who. He commented that I had a pretty hearty hike to make it to this point. I told him that I wasn't even half way, the look on his face made me wonder why I do what I do. We parted ways with the man saying "" have fun"" in a way that really showed his lack of ability to understand why anyone would walk that far. I hit sustained snow around 2500ft, I followed a old snowshoe track without the need for snowhoes until around 3000ft. I then reached a point were I felt snowshoes were needed, too bad for me one of the pivots broke shortly after putting them on. I like the MSR snowhoes but this is the 3rd time I have broken a pair in the same spot. With plenty of time and a long ways to go I continued on to around 3400ft. At this elevation with new snow and with the trail having less traveler's the going without snowshoes became more difficult than what I was really in the mood for. I stopped for a short while and then returned to the truck without incident.

Teanaway Butte 2.10.04

With today's perfect weather I eagerly set off for a return trip to Teanaway Butte. Teanaway Butte is ranked a lowly 94 on the list of 100 highest summits of the Back Court. The Middle Fork Rd. was devoid of any snow all the way to it's maintained end, which was much different than last week. The area sees heavy snowmobile traffic so the road was packed and made for quick walking. I left the main line after about a mile and used the spur road that ends 350ft below the summit. I left the road here having to put on snowshoes because of the deep unpacked snow. The summit is straight in front of you and poses no difficulties. The last 150ft is steep and in open and deep snow making it quite the lung burning finish. The summit is open and attractive and I was treated to some stunning views of the Stuart Range as well as the scattered peaks of the Teanaway area. The weather was quite ideal with the temps in the mid 50's and not even a breath of wind. Although the climb was much longer than anticipated (approx 14 miles roundtrip) it went very quickly due to not having to break trail. Approx 2:30 up and 1:45 down.