Intermediate Alpine Climb - Snoqualmie Mountain/New York Gully

I thought that with the diurnal temp swings and the clear, cold nights, this would be a good time to go get on New York Gully on Snoqualmie Mtn.

We left Bham at 4am and made the drive down. The snow was firm on the approach and we were psyched. We thought it would make for perfect cramponing on the route. Duncan did a great job of finding our way up the phantom slide.

We were ahead of our time plan by the time we dropped over the saddle on the west ridge, but it didn't take long for us to see it wasn't looking good. Even the faces on that side of the ridge were bare and lots of rock was exposed down below as well.

As I came around to the base of the buttress and saw the route, I knew it was out. The upper pitches were bone dry. We dropped our packs in the rocks below and kicked steps up to take a look at the start. The first 30-40 ft had patches of snow and there were a couple of other small patches on pitch 2, but after that we could see any snow, let alone any ice.

We packed back up and climbed back up and over the west ridge saddle, and after a quick break to enjoy the sun and views of Rainier and the valley below, we plunge- stepped back down to the valley. We contemplated putting a rope up on some of the lower Alpental ice, but most of it was looking really wet and not well bonded. Things were actively falling apart as we stood there and looked at it. We decided to try to salvage the afternoon and drive down to get a few laps in at Wayne's World before heading back home.

Long day, and while we didn't technically complete our objective, it was still great to get outside on such a beautiful day. You don't know 'til you go...