Sounds like a good adventure. Plus, as you point out a big perk is the lack of permit control for that side of the peak.
I'm surprised that you report all of the snow and ice gone from the North side of Sherpa Pass, that is some fast-acting climate change as there was black ice in August 2007.
I'm curious where the third rap on your descent deposited you, were you still considerably above treeline? I found that it took a considerable amount of planning in each successive gully to choose an effective point to cross into the next one. Crossing too high invariably meant getting cliffed out below, especially as the largest gendarmes seemed to be higher on the mountain. At every ridge separating the gullies careful scouting was needed to pick out a line, and the occasional lazy tendency to just follow cairns led to shenanigans like crawling through tunnels and long backtracks. Following our noses seemed to work best in finding an appropriate descent path.
Even so, and this being our one and only time back there, the trip took us about 30 hours car to car with a lot of down time at a high camp, so a one-day trip seems very feasible.
Z-Man - Mar 14, 2009 1:40 am - Hasn't voted
AdventureSounds like a good adventure. Plus, as you point out a big perk is the lack of permit control for that side of the peak.
I'm surprised that you report all of the snow and ice gone from the North side of Sherpa Pass, that is some fast-acting climate change as there was black ice in August 2007.
I'm curious where the third rap on your descent deposited you, were you still considerably above treeline? I found that it took a considerable amount of planning in each successive gully to choose an effective point to cross into the next one. Crossing too high invariably meant getting cliffed out below, especially as the largest gendarmes seemed to be higher on the mountain. At every ridge separating the gullies careful scouting was needed to pick out a line, and the occasional lazy tendency to just follow cairns led to shenanigans like crawling through tunnels and long backtracks. Following our noses seemed to work best in finding an appropriate descent path.
Even so, and this being our one and only time back there, the trip took us about 30 hours car to car with a lot of down time at a high camp, so a one-day trip seems very feasible.