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Rick at Telluride
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Martin approaching the summit of Mt. Alice; McHenry's Peak in the background
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Kurt and me following Chris above the bergschrund, with the Carbon Glacier many thousands of feet below. From here we had one last pitch of technical climbing, which looked like it would be a short, easy ice bulge. I grabbed a few ice-screws and started leading, but I should have remembered that “ice is always steeper than it looks” – the angle turned out to be 60-65 degrees, and it was over a full rope-length of climbing before I reached easier-angled snow below the summit.
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Chris setting out the following morning. Chris is an avid ski-mountaineer and did an excellent job of kicking steps for us. With the benefit of hindsight it would have been better to have started a couple of hours earlier, but we’d arrived at Thumb Rock quite late the previous evening and we wanted to have a decent night’s rest before the 4,000’ climb to the summit.
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Rick at Telluride
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Bill Wright on the summit of Mt. Alice; Chief's Head, Longs Peak and Mt. Meeker in the background
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Above the “Black Pyramid” much of the snow cover gave way to bare glacial ice, so we took out the rope and started placing ice-screws. Here’s Martin leading the way.