Red Slate Mountain
28 June 2015
This is a supermini, so small, trip story. Jonathan and I climbed Red Slate Mountain via the north couloir. In fact the only way to truly make this outing deserving of the Sierra Club Mountaineer’s Peak denotation is to go up the north couloir. Sustained, steep, maybe snow and maybe ice climbing. We hit mostly snow, but there was a sweet runnel of bullet ice going down the middle, over which we both expertly stepped. Oh yeah.
Here is the so small story. We were approaching the climb early on a Sunday morning. I was wearing my loosely laced and recently acquired Scarpa Inverno mountaineering boots for improved cramponing performance. Loosely laced were they because these things are a PAIN to hike in! My feet were completely mashed by the end of the trip. I got off route a bit on the approach and found myself groveling up a mega-loose terminal moraine. I went into four-wheel drive mode near the top and started spinning my wheels on the top out, sand slipping out everywhere, spraying in my wake. Then, finally I crested the damned loose moraine ridgetop. However, the sand literally sucked the plastic shell off one of my boots, right off my foot, whoop!
There it goes……tumbling……thunk, chunk, crack……keep your eyes on it, Jeff……hold steady……you got this……ooh man, lost sight of it for a sec there. And there I am, heaving on the ridgetop, contemplating the first bootless ascent of the north couloir of Red Slate Mountain. I wondered, could I kick steps with the foam liner? Mmmm, yeah probably not……
So off I went in search of the boot. When I didn’t immediately find it where I reasoned it had come to rest, I pretty much gave up hope of completing the climb. That’s a bummer man……
But……oh sweet mountain! There it is, a boot among the rocks! Could it really be……my boot! I laced that sucker on good and tight and caught up to Jonathan in no time. He was none the wiser and we went about the climb in good style. Exit the top of the chute to climber’s right for a loose and spicy fourth class finish on rock. Or gain the summit plateau by doglegging gently to the left on easier (and likely snowy) terrain. You got this.
