North Arete 5.7

I so enjoyed last month's Matterhorn Peak TR that I decided to go do it myself.

Saturday I drove over the newly-opened Sonora Pass to Bridgeport, picked up my wilderness permit, then proceeded to Twin Lakes. I parked on the road and hiked up the Horse Creek trail.


Armed with supertopo GPS coordinates (tm) I caught a glimpse of Matterhorn's north side while sloshing through the patchy snow.


I headed up the col, which was pretty much solid snow. There were a lot of tracks. Popular destination. Looked like someone had passed through in the morning. I took a look down-canyon.


Around 9400' I decided to camp in the trees, since I hadn't quite made up my mind about the east couloir vs. the southeast face. I waved to a guy who was descending from Horse Creek Pass. The evening scenery was pretty nice.


The night was not particularly cold, but it was breezy. My alarm went off at 3:30am. I turned it off, then went back to sleep. Woke up again at 4:45, and decided to go sightseeing. Started moving around 5:30.

The lake at ~9600' was still frozen, barely.


I kept going up, aiming for the moraine, mostly still under snow.


The Ski Dreams couloir looked good, the west couloir looked good, and the east couloir looked kinda melted out. I was not feeling up to the west couloir, and hadn't really read much about the SW side, so up the east couloir I went.


I stopped for some gu about midway, and finally got to the couloir exit around 9am.


Now for the rock scrambling .. I really wasn't feeling up for anything hard, and anyhow my surgeon would not approve :) So I hunted around for the 3rd class ledges .. made a couple of false starts, downclimbed, then found a more likely route. Finally atop the summit ridge I scrambled up, signed the register, took some pics and downed a chocolate bar in celebration.

I believe this is Whorl Mountain, something for later in the season ..


Aliens checking out Virginia and Stanton peaks :)


Around 10-ish I figured descending might be nice, so I headed down the SE side towards Horse Creek Pass. The snow higher up on this side was obnoxiously suncupped, but soft. I was really glad I hadn't decided to slog up the sand and loose crap on this side.


Headed down the pass, lots of tracks to follow. Obviously a popular destination. Looking back up ..


Got back to camp before noon, and returned to my car by 3pm. I should have driven over Conway summit to the Mobil mart deli... oh well, next time.