This is a part of my Cirque of the Unclimbables climbing trip in 2019.
Please search for “TheCirque2019” in my blog search or look for #cirqueoftheunclimbables in tag cloud for more posts from this trip.
August 15th
We had rain/snow forecast from this day to next few days. We did not have any fixed plan each day, because we were not sure of the weather. It was cloudy in the morning and turned into rain during the day. Marubou, Yabu, and Suguru hiked down to Glacier lake to bring up rest of the gears and foods at the float plane landing.
I hiked around the base camp to find good photo shoot location. I was amazing to see the clouds moving fast and changing the landscape dramatically.
I got my favourite photo of East Huey Spire.
August 16th
When we woke up in the morning, the outside was bright and misty. Sea of clouds were just below us coming up from a valley. It was beautiful, but it soon turned into rain… We got our base camp rain/snow proof. This was day 2 of home improvement. We had to get ready for big snow fall!! My inReach said it might snow 60cm….
As our plan for this entire trip was to put a new free climbing route, we practiced hand drilling and added a couple of bolts to our base camp rain shelter system. It took a person for more than one hour to drill a whole and put a bolt in it. Of course, we would do it better eventually, but it was how long it could take for beginners. The weather became clear by the noon, so Yuki and Marubou packed route developing gears and went for it. Rest of the crew stayed at the camp and made our camp more comfortable. I followed Yuki and Marubou to take some photos from the ground.
I got a photo of Yuki and Marubou on the first pitch of their route.
By 20:00, we all gathered at the camp and had a dinner. It was getting colder. The next day was the worst weather day according to the forecast. Everyone was a bit worried for sure. None of us had proper gears for snow condition…
August 17th
It had come,,,, snowing….
It was so quiet and cold in the morning. As I opened my tent, a wintery breeze came in and I found this winter scenery. It was 9:30 when I snapped this photo. Of course, we did not go outside. We watched movies and read books. Time went by,,, and I went outside at 13:40 and saw the landscape completely in winter mode. Our rock ceiling was covered by ice and icicles. Our kitchen was all frozen from water dripping from the ceiling.
I got before and after photos.
Here you go!
In 4 hours, we had 15-20cm snow. The temperature was a little below zero, so snow was very wet and stack to everywhere, even on steep rock walls.
We were all sad to see this, but I did not feel as bad as others. I really liked this view. It was beautiful. I loved it as a photographer, but I hated it as a climber.
It basically became winter in 4 hours, and there was nothing we could do. We just hoped that weather become better and went to sleep.
Sea to sky 