Mount Shark attempt
February 21, 2004
Mountain height: 2,786 m
Ascent time: Long!!
Descent time: Not as long!!
Snowshoeing,
scrambling, and mountaineering with Mark. A perfect weather day and with our
newly acquired mountaineering and climbing experience, a second winter attempt
at Mount Shark seemed like a good idea……and it
was.…..at least for a brief while!
Getting to Watridge Lake and then to Karst Spring was easy
on the hard packed ski-trail. Getting from Karst Spring to the treeline on Mount Shark
was physically devastating through deep, soft snow on steepish slopes.
Snowshoes helped, but we were still sinking almost to the ground throughout the
ascent. After what seemed like an eternity, we finally made it above the
treeline, where we were able to ditch our snowshoes and rope up for the real
scrambling. The real scrambling turned out to be REAL mountaineering! Obviously
there was still a ton of snow on the mountain, making most of the steep ascent
quite treacherous. We tried to stay on bare rock as much as possible, but were
forced to go up snow-covered slopes some of the time. We did make it further up
the mountain than on our previous attempt last March and the outstanding
weather and scenery made the ascent worthwhile even though we had to call it
quits, when we came to a short rockband that we couldn’t ascend or traverse
around.
On descent, we rappelled down one steep section, and then again down a
snow slope. Did I mention the great weather and scenery throughout??? A great
day, but I think that after 2 failed winter attempts on this mountain, we’ll wait
for summer to try this one again.
Mount Shark
Approaching the base of the mountain
Ascending the lower slopes, with great views towards Spray Lake
Steep terrain on the ridge
Bailing and rappelling
Defeated, but still happy to be enjoying the amazing scenery in perfect weather