Alpine Scramble - Lichtenberg Mountain

Compared to last year's attempt I found this one more challenging in terms of conditions (weather, snow conditions) but at least we didn't have to deal with lots of route finding.

The snowbridge that we found last year after lots of meandering was still in this year but only barely. In the photo it looks even sketchier than it was. A fallen tree across the creek helped built it in the first place and it still hung on by a thread. I didn't notice any obvious crossing options anywhere else but maybe much further uphill alternative options exist.

Route to the upper basin was uneventful. We had to switch back and forth between snowshoes and not (or microspikes) quite a bit. We traveled the same route below the lake as last year where you get to that one spot that's fairly steep and requires kicking in steps and self-belay that I just wouldn't do in snowshoes. When we came back down later in the day the section felt steep enough for folks to downscramble face-in.

Once past the lake we stayed in the gully as much as possible and then tried to spot a location from the distance with a cornice on the ridge. The main summit and most of the cornices there were fogged in, thus we aimed for something closer to the East summit. In hindsight we chose a route that wasn't the easiest and took a decent amount of work to kick in steps in snowshoes but it worked out.

Once on the ridge the rest of the way to the summit was easy walking but oh lordy the weather was unpleasant up there, ice winds with the occasional sleet pelting your face. The sun gave us a glimpse for maybe 30 seconds once at the summit, then whoosh we were in the clouds again. On the way down we chose a more direct route into the basin now that we had better visibility on the cornice situation. The tree-high cornice wall that we saw last year was definitely not a thing this year. Some of the decent was mildly glissadeable too!

Strava track: https://www.strava.com/activities/18246540190