Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Recon in Tuttle Creek

After a somewhat lazy weekend, I'm back into my routine: A dawn ski outing then off to work.
This week I decided to check out the Tuttle Creek area. Snow drifts cross the road about a half mile below the trailhead, although they are discontinuous. I followed the road to the trailhead and continued on the summer trail. The going was rough due to firm snow and lots of "postholes" from previous hikers.
Eventually I noticed tracks heading away from the trail to the south. Since there were both up and down tracks I figured "these guys know where they're going" although the route seemed improbable. It WAS improbable and nearly impossible! They somehow busted through Mahoganey and steep terrain down to the South Fork, but I decided to call it good. Here are the views from my turn around point up the South Fork towards Mt. Langley.

I also had good views of the grand wall that is the South Face of Lone Pine Peak.



I spied an interesting chute (sorry no pics) that I'll try tomorrow. It is just beyond the trailhead a bit. I'll let you know how it went.

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