Climbers: Dennis, Jim, Jose
Route: Hansen Creek & Standard Route
Climb Description: This epic back to back summit accent started with a Nordic Ski up Hansen Creek logging road. Jim and I skied up the deep snow covered road…following truck tracks and hearing gun fire in the distance. After a long hard accent we gained the pass finding a group of guys camping with big trucks and hand guns, WOW! A short break then we continued up the never ending logging road. After an hour plus we skied the final snow slope up to the summit. We quickly skied down the narrow road knowing we would soon be descending in the dark. One problem, I lost one of my mountaineering boots on the trail. After a week of clear weather the challenge was set. Jose and I would re-climb the mountain to recover the boot. But this time we would climb to the top via the normal route. Hiking the logging road to open snow slopes, we ascended, kick stepping our way to the top except the summit was nowhere near, we traversed the mountain via a logging road, climbed more open slopes gaining the long summit ridge. An hour and a mile later we finally reached the summit. Not knowing where the boot was lost, we would now descend the ski route. 400 feet below we recovered DAS BOOT, waiting lonely in the snow; SUCCESS!!! Our tracks were the only ones on the mountain since our previous ski ascent. We traversed west, then dropped into Harris Creek basin. Following a old logging road, we now traversed 360 degrees around the peak. Hiking out with my boot in hand made this back to back epic all worth it.
Weather/Conditions: Clear & Cool both days
Notes: “DAS BOOT”
