The 'alpine' season: choose your elevation and aspect
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Peter Doucette follows the Whitney-Gilman ridge in full winter conditions. |
Now is the time to get up in the alpine. Emilie recently took this photo of Peter Doucette on Cannon Cliff's uber-classic Whitney-Gilman Ridge. While it has been nice lately, on this day, it was still in full winter condition!
With moderating long sunny days and a fortunate recent string of snowfall up high, now is the time to get out in the backcountry. For those who want to end their winter season with a memorable 'alpine' experience, elevation and aspect make all the difference. On clear cold mornings we can still head to the shadowed and higher northern aspects to climb ice and mixed routes- especially icy gullies and chimneys, and then in the afternoon we switch to rock climbing on the warm southern faces and dry cracks. Backcountry ski tours offer a similar dichotomy of mountaineering experiences: from icy packed trails in the morning and wind-packed powder on the high northern aspects, to sweaty uphill skinning- gloveless and in a t-shirt- in the afternoon sun and carving pockets of soft corn on the southern aspects. And the real benefit of this time of season is that, during the weekdays at least- no one is here!- and we have the place to ourselves to enjoy the backcountry and 'alpine' season.
I shot some video up on Algonquin yesterday, skiing with a few local friends: 50 degrees F and sunny in the valley- a little colder up high in the wind- but it was a beautiful day to spend above treeline and explore some of the many aspects and elevations of the MacIntyre Range, and we racked up close to to 6000' of vertical gain along the way.
