Vince Minichiello
South Arete- South Early Winter Spire- June 23, 2007
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| Planning a trip to Washington for business,
Vince Minichiello of Maryland contacted NCMG to try and squeeze
in a bit of fun on his work trip. After discussing possible
objectives, Vince and Larry decided on the South Arete of South
Early Winter Spire. With long term goals including the Matterhorn,
climbing the South Arete in mountain boots would be perfect
training for such a future climb. |
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| Taking advantage of the still abundant
snowpack, we left from the hairpin turn on Highway 20
and began hiking up the slopes of Spire Gully. |
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| Here the South Arete can be seen in profile
on the left skyline. |
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| Spire Gully offers over 2000 vertical
feet of snow that gets progressively steeper toward the
top. We began using ski poles, then moved to one pole
and an ice axe as the snow got a bit steeper. Here Vince
works his way up near the top of the slope. |
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| Many climbers had the same idea as we
did that day and when we arrived there were 4 parties
ahead of us on the climb. With an alternate start and
some clever ropework, we had passed all four parties within
the first 15 minutes of the climb. We had the entire rest
of the climb to ourselves. |
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| Vince pulling through a short, steep
section. |
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| There is an incredibly exposed section
right below the summit. Here Vince readies himself to
move across. |
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| Vince smoothly climbs across the traverse,
confident, even in boots. |
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| We had a leisurely lunch on the summit,
though we noticed the clouds building a bit. |
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| After descending the route, we began
the short ridge scramble toward the top of spire gully.
We passed a small group of Mountain Goats as we headed
across. |
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| After glissading most of Spire Gully
we were back down at the car less than an hour after setting
foot back on the ground and only about 2 hours after leaving
the summit. It was amazing to look back up there, thinking
about how far away it looked now and how quickly the weather
was changing... |
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