A largish group gathered at the regular time in Eastgate, consisting of Mark S. Larry, Jason, Joan, Al, Don, Mark D., Jim, Sherry and Dan.
We made haste to the trailhead, with the first group departing around 5:58 and the later at 6:04.
It was a warm and humid evening, hiking along the river leading to the lower lake provided some wonderful relief from the temperatures with the cool breeze flowing off of the river
There were minor snow ridges along the trail above the lower lake leading up to Ollalie, nothing much to worry about. The bridge on the trail leading up to Pratt was washed out at the Y, which didn?t impact us as we were heading the other way.
The bushwhack from the lake to the ridge trail was normal, no snow to speak of in the open and only minor mosquito infestations this early in the year. The ridge trail leading to the talus scramble to the top had minor snow on it above the scramble but as soon as we started traversing it dried out and quick progress was made.
The peak scramble started in firm snow off of the trail and for a short jaunt through the woods. The face was about 70% snow and 30% exposed rock, after punching through a few times near the rocks Mark and I opted to kick in steps straight up to the top ? it was quick going! We started the final climb at 7:42pm Mark?s comment was ?Well, we have 18 minutes to summit this one!? We hit the summit just a few minutes after the lead group, almost exactly at 8:00pm. After munching on Joan?s scrumptious brownies and snapping a few pictures the summit group (Larry, Jason, Joan, Mark and Dan) started down ? and promptly ran into Al who was just arriving? After a couple more photos, and a brownie or two, we all practiced our glissading skills and make it down off the summit in record time. Jason took a number of pictures and a few short movies that we will get onto the TNAB site this weekend.
We collected Don and Sherry on the ridge trail, no sign of Mark or Jim, uh-oh. Make the scramble back down to the lake before dark, still no sign of the missing two. Hm. Make the slog out to the trailhead ? and about 10 minutes from the parking lot I finally get a cell call from Mark ? it seems they missed the TNAB signs! Mark D & Jim missed the sign showing the scramble route to the left of Ollalie lake, so they made their own path ? unfortunately they intercepted the Pratt Lake trail and wound up exiting the hike at the next exit East from 45! They hiked out to the interchange and we dispatched a car to pick them up after the hike and all was well.
TNAB bags yet another hike!
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