First Excelsior Pass attempt

Jonelle at the Flume

Nine Senior Trailblazers met at the Senior Center this morning to make our first 2012 attempt to get to Excelsior Pass. Three weeks ago, Fred and Al headed up to this trailhead to see what kind of shape it's in. Here's what Al wrote about it then. In the three weeks since he was here, he said much of the snow that he was falling through at that time is now gone. We went almost three miles before we ran into some serious snow, at about 4,000 feet elevation.

Snow and downed trees

By the time I took this picture, we were on snow the whole time, with only Al's GPS and some previous trail markers giving us an idea that we were headed towards the pass. We soldiered on for another mile, gaining almost another 1,000 feet, before we stopped for lunch. We had 800 vertical feet to go in heavy snow before we would be at the top, so we decided to try again another day and just find a sunny spot on the snow. On the way up, we noticed that the air temperature would be very cold and then very warm, as if competing weather systems were fighting for the upper hand.

Our lunch spot was pretty nice, considering that we were sitting on snow but basking in the sunshine as we ate lunch and gathered our strength for the descent. While I was sitting here enjoying the sun, I looked up and saw a ring around the sun, which we decided must have something to do with the humidity. (None of us really knows what caused it.) It made for a very impressive picture, though.

I suspect that the ring follows all the way around the sun, but I was only able to get this picture with the tree covering the sun itself. Pretty cool, huh? I wasn't at all convinced that the picture would turn out, but it certainly did. As I readied myself for the descent, I noticed that Jonelle was looking pretty spiffy, all black on the white snow, so I begged for a picture.

Jonelle in the snow

Linda told Jonelle she has never had so many pictures taken of her as he has since I joined the group, pointing my camera impertinently at my photogenic companions. Jonelle and I both have transition lenses on our glasses, which turn jet black when we are on the snow. I love this picture and make no excuses for including it.

We made our way back through the snow to the incredible greenery; that one mile we spent totally on the snow was the slowest and most difficult part of this journey. It gives us a chance to come back here a bit later in the season and make it all the way to the top. When we did that last year, we had an incredible view, but it wasn't until August that we got there. In fact, it was the first summit we reached last year, and it took another another two months before the snow gave us a chance. Hopefully this year will be better, but it's still early, only being the end of June and all.

Jonelle blowing out her candles

When we finally reached the trailhead, Amy pulled out some cupcakes so we could celebrate Jonelle's June birthday with her. I didn't actually get a picture of her blowing out the candle, but our social secretary, Amy, was (as always) making sure that we ALL feel the love. It was a very good day, even if we only went 7.2 miles (one of those miles was up snow!). In those short miles we covered 3,000 feet of elevation up and down. No wonder I'm feeling a bit tired.
:-)