Winter Ascent on Mt. Rose
I’ve always wanted to do a Winter Ascent on Mt. Rose so I could go straight up the face of the mountain rather than taking the longer round-a-bout trail that skirts the side of Tamarack Peak.
It was extremely cold, even with a late start around 9am it was 17 degrees when I left, with windchill on the summit it had to be close to zero and I could not feel my fingers or toes, and when I returned to the car it was 12 degrees.
The only exciting part of the trip was after the summit I stayed too high on the ridge and needed my ice ax and crampons to climb about 500 feet over an extremely steep ridge. It was fun, but racing the sunlight and being solo made for a spicy climb with little room for error. A fall would have taken me down a 60 degree or steeper slope until either I hit a tree or stopped in the gully.
True to my form I did not take a headlamp and ended up getting to my car about 3 hours after sunset. People inTahoe are so nice though, as I was hiking back to the car on the Mt Rose highway people stopped and asked if I needed a ride. I always leave an itinerary with my roommate who at the time was at a cooking class with his girlfriend and was somewhat aware of what I was doing.
All in all a good day outside and good to knock that off my list.
Gear needed:
Snowshoes for the approach
Crampons for the summit
ice ax for the summit
stiff mountaineering boots, I use an Asolo Piolet and this was the limit on how cold those boots can keep me warm, but handled the rock and snow perfectly.
