Unnamed Peak in Star Basin TR 5-27-07
Cast of Characters: Leroy Jenkins and Adimmen.
The Line:
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z...g?t=1180378001
Elevation: Roughly 13,100 We entered top right and worked out way into the slightly diagonal chute facing a bit more to the left than everything else. The above photo was taken on the 24th, after a few days of cold temps and some fresh snowfall, from a nearby high point.
Star Basin is at the top of the Ashcroft valley. There are tons of lines up there, many of which are very aesthetic and appealing. However, I don’t think it gets skied all that often because the access is just enough of a pain to deter a lot of people.
This face is clearly visible for most of the drive up the Ashcroft road. I find myself staring at it all the time. One line in particular has always stood out to me, the slightly diagonal chute in the middle of the face. It’s definitely the sort of line you can still see when you close you eyes in August.
The access isn’t all that great, so I had written it off, but after I pointed it out to Adimmen, it seemed to captivate him in the same way it had me. We looked at some maps, and some pictures I’d taken from a nearby mini peak, and decided that we were up for a slog. The plan was to skin around into the basin behind our ridge, then boot up the back side, since that would make the actual bootpack much shorter. We woke up early Sunday, and headed out.
Castle looking good in the morning light.
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z...g?t=1180378070
Soon, we got into the basin.
Some very fun looking (if a bit short) lines.
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z...g?t=1180378103
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z...g?t=1180378127
Closer look at the hidden chute from the picture above.
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z...g?t=1180378153
The snow was very supportable, and with both of us being on trekkers, we opted to start booting early.
Yours truly, working my way up to the final steep section.
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z...g?t=1180378181
We got to the top of our line at about 10:30, but ended up waiting around for almost an hour since things took much longer to soften up than we had expected.
Adimmen in front of some very fun looking lines.
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z...g?t=1180378212
Hmm, where was our line again?
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z...g?t=1180378249
Adimmen thinks that maybe its over this way.
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z...g?t=1180378274
Yea, he’s found it.
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z...g?t=1180378306
But where’d he go?
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z...g?t=1180378454
Ahh, there he is. (Yea, I know I’m supposed to tilt the camera to make it look MORE steep, not less.)
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z...g?t=1180378476
The snow was a bit odd, but manageable. There seemed to be an odd layer (probably the snow we got last week) that turned into breakable crust in a few spots up top, and sloughed off pretty dramatically lower down. The snow underneath, however, was plenty stable, and just soft enough to really be able to hold an edge on. The apron of course, was pure corn harvesting.
Adimmen shreddifying the entrance to the chute.
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z...g?t=1180378504
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z...g?t=1180378531
Me, in the gut of the chute.
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z...g?t=1180378546
Me, starting to open it up a bit near the apron.
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z...g?t=1180378593
Well that was fun
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z...g?t=1180378622
A cool little gully we found lower down.
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z...g?t=1180378643
After about an hour or so of bushwhackering, we ended up at a 10th Mountain Division hut. I didn’t bother to see which one, you can look it up if you want but I’m too lazy. I know it’s not Tagert.
No one seemed to be around, so we dropped the packs and chilled on their benches for a while. I’m not sure if he was delirious after the bitch of a bushwhack, or if he really just felt he needed more exercise, but Adimmen decided that he felt like chopping wood.
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z...g?t=1180378663
The people staying at the hut showed up and ruined our fun. They told us only they were allowed to chop wood. Discouraged, we headed back to the car.
We were both pretty relieved to drop our packs. As you can tell, they aren’t quite lightweight peak bagging setups.
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z...g?t=1180378689
Twas a fun day. I’m glad I finally ticked that off my list, wasn’t too sure when that was going to happen, and it was great to meet you Adimmen.
By the way, Adimmen is looking for someone to ski the E face of Castle. I backed out because tight spaces scare me and I’m a rather large vagina that would rather just go ski something open really fast.