The Return of Mule Man and Little Boy
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The trail up Saddleback had been recently broken (this is, as far as I know, fairly rare), and I was thankful for that. Here James does his best Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon pose (this photo is actually out of sequence - that's the approach to Gothics from Armstrong beyond).
I could tell James was concerned about the time. I could tell this because he said, "I'm concerned about the time." He asked if I wanted to bail. I was a little surprised to hear him say this, but we were in a good spot to have the conversation. We had wanted to do the traverse in two days. That was not going to happen. We still had to get up over Saddleback, down it, up Basin, down it, then over to Haystack and Marcy, then head all the way out. As far as mileage went, we were just over half done. We were right at the crux of the ascents and descents. Moreover, moving onto and past Saddleback was and is the point of no return. It is practically impossible to bail once you head down the Saddleback descent, which, in the winter, is technical and is strongly discouraged. From there, you have to climb up Basin, get down it, then head out across the last and largest of the Great Range peaks. We talked a bit, and decided that we wanted to at least make it up Saddleback and take a look at the descent. If it looked doable and we felt good, we'd try to finish (make that, we would have to complete) the traverse the next day. |
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