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
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