Morris and I headed back up Sunday to take a look at the Miller Gulch from
the 11,000 foot peak that rises above the gulches.
We thought perhaps we would be able to find some good cold snow in the
mostly north north-west facing tree lined gullies that run down off the ridge
just west of the peak. Looking at the peak and those lines while skiing the
west facing aspen glades the last few times in the Schell Creeks had primed
us for our tour. We had spent some time checking out our route on topo
maps and had also determined that our alternative route would be down the
west ridge if we found conditions to be such that skiing our chosen gullies
wasn't a good option.
We were at the trail-head by 9 AM and heading up our well established
skin track to the glades soon after. It was nice to have a 'groomed' skin
track for the first 1,500 feet of the ascent. We were able to reach the top of
that in about an hour and 15 minutes. From there Dan broke trail to the
upper ridge that would lead us to the peak. That portion of the route was
much better than we had hoped for and once on the upper ridge we were
treated to fantastic views framed by the plentiful Bristlecone Pines. An
occasional Blue Grouse flushing was an added wildlife bonus.
Dan let me break trail up the ridge to the peak once on the ridge so I
finally got a chance to sweat a little. The winds were slight but cool on this
typical mountainous sunshine day making for some good traveling. When
we arrived at the peak 2 1/2 hours had passed since we left the vehicle. We
did slope angle measurements of the first gully finding it to be 35 degrees
and greater on the top section and then made our way over to the south
side of the ridge to enjoy lunch in the sunshine and wind shelter of a
Bristlecone Pine.
