The plan was to drive to the trailhead Friday night, car camp, and get
a good early start Saturday morning. Our route would be the Bedal
Creek trail to the lower ledge to the corkscrew route. (Most people
doing the corkscrew route take the Sloan Glacier to the upper ledge.)
We were up by 4:30 am and heading up the trail by 5:30.
The usual futsing around on the approach.
Juan striking a hero pose as we continually
round the base of the granite block.
Back at the trail head we'd had a brief discussion about whether or
not to bring crampons. While there was talk that we most likely wouldn't
need them, the decision was made to pack them anyway. This proved
rather fortuitous as we encountered superhard snow that we would have been
unable to cross without crampons.
Juan at the biginning of the lower ledge.
Frank - our real hero for showing us the route, which he'd done before.
Mark pretending to be a hero.
The Monte Christo Range, I think, with Rainier off to the right.
At the base of the corkscrew. Mt. Baker in the distance.
The ledge was actually a bit sketchy in places. It was fairly exposed
and had a lot of loose dirt and rocks and sloping grass (I freaked out at one point when
everything I was standing on came out from beneath me on a dirt section the others
had managed to avoid). The corkscew itself however
was good, solid granite and rarely exposed.