Home»All Photographs»2016 Hikes»Mt. Bryant 10-15-16

Mt. Bryant proved to be more challenging today than I initially gave it credit for.
First, the approach trail along the Canyon Creek tributary has been wiped out by the floods of 2013, leaving a long walk up pumpkin-sized cobble in the riverbed. The scenery in the upper drainage was wonderful, however.
Second, this area (according to other trip reports) is notoriously windy. It was calm and sunny just 20 km away at the start of the gravel road, but here at Canyon Creek, it was blowing my vehicle doors shut at the trailhead!
Lastly, there was more snow in the final approach to the lake than I thought there would be, and the sunny weather of late had melted and re-frozen to form a verglas on the rocks above treeline. I started to think that maybe my hike would be just reconnaissance for a summer summit attempt, and I would call it a day upon reaching the lake.
But often, you just need to take a closer look and continue until there is one single problem that you can't surmount before calling it quits.
Once at the lake (2.5 hours in), I had a quick bite of some dry, nasty pizza and looked up at the pinnacle that marked my way through a short cliff band. It didn't seem too far away, so I decided to climb up to it.
There, I wandered back and forth looking for a way up. The wind was howling and any decent little hand or foothold was covered in verglas...not really scrambling anymore, I thought. In dry conditions, this little 15 foot wall would be a cinch.
I was on the verge of descending when I stepped up onto a small ledge and heaved myself up ungraciously onto a snow patch. There. The rest of the way up would be easier and I would deal with this little wall later, on descent.
Up I went, though the wind was testing my balance a few times.
Once at the summit, I snapped some pictures and signed the summit register (very few ascents logged here). I stayed at the top less than 5 minutes.
I descended without incident back to the cliff band and found my way down with less trouble than I thought I would have.
The combination of snow/ice, very strong wind and the fact that I was travelling solo (in fact nobody else was even on this mountain or the approach to it) conspired to test me mentally on the ascent, that's for sure. Sometimes, when you think you are doing something crazy, it's just your mind being the weak link. I decided to sing a song I liked in my head, and that made things seem more normal...if not at least drown out the buffeting wind on my hood.
But I was well prepared with proper clothing and the sun was shining the entire day, so the trip as a whole was very enjoyable and will stand out as one of my proud achievements of the 2016 scrambling season.