Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Backcountry Recon - Crater Lake

The plan for Sunday was to roll up to Crater Lake for day two of our backcountry weekend.  We got a bit of a late start and rolled into the lower lodge at around 11:30.  We pulled into the lower lodge and Hodgie started to point out the ridge line and descent that he had been eyeballing and drooling over.  After we got done wiping the dribble off our mouths, we decided we wanted to get another look at the slope and headed up to the lodge at the rim to check it out.

We continued to be uber impressed by the line and kept talking about the best approach.  During this time, the tick tock of the clock pressed onwards and appeared to fly by as we were taken in by beautiful scenery.  It might be one of the most scenic days I have had while at Crater Lake.  We took several pictures and then glanced at the time.  It was already passed noon and we decided the prudent thing would be to leave that line for another day.  We did not have a good idea of how long the approach would take (or the subsequent descent)....not to mention we all wanted to be able to dig a snow pit and check out the conditions of the snow stability.

As an outdoor enthusiast you realize early on that part of actually doing something often means having to scout it out and doing your due diligence to plan it accordingly, and then being able to actually do it on a different day...sometimes that all synchs up to be able to do it the same day but as the danger goes up, the trepidation and pucker factor also go up for me.

I chalked the day up to a solid recon mission with the intent to get back to the area when we had more time at our disposal and did not feel 'rushed' to give it the proper respect it needed (snow analysis to determine avie risk).  The line is clearly the avie path as there are no trees in the slide path at all...hmmmm.

Crater gets just a wee bit of the snow stuff:
 The line we were looking at in the middle right  -
 The old lodge with Garfield Peak in the background
 Hodgie scoping and plotting...
 ohh yeah, there is some sort of lake thingie there too
 Mt Thielsen in the background
 Mt Scott

 the boys posing:
 Wizard Island
 The post card pic:


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