Mt. Yale in August of 2001 seen from Mt. Princeton.
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Bobbie and I first tried a winter ascent of Mt. Yale back in March of '99. OK, technically it wasn't winter anymore, but it was still winter conditions. The weather had been good recently, and we were expecting an easy trip.
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Despite the warm weather, we encountered much more snow than we anticipated. We left our snow shoes behind, and ended up breaking trail for several miles below timberline. This view of Mt. Princeton to the south gives a good idea of how much snow was still left on the mountains.
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Once we got out of the trees, the views of Mt. Princeton to the south were breath taking.
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We hiked to near timberline the first day and made camp. Not an easy prospect when you have to stomp out a level platform out of snow. Then we ran into trouble with my stove which would not work at all. We were finally able to melt enough snow over an open fire to have noodles that night, and make tea for the morning.
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Without a working stove, we weren't able to melt snow for water, and couldn't cook any of our food. But we decided since we had come that for we would see how far we could get anyway.
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We made it within 800 vertical feet of the summit, but turned back because of high winds and lack of food and water. We went most of the afternoon without any water, and were extremely parched by the time we made it back down to the stream near the trailhead. I went back to Yale in April of 2000 for another feeble atempt. This time heavy snow persuaded me to head home early. John Rettig and I finally knocked it off in late September in spite of the strong winds at the summit ridge.
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