The Mitre

Jon and I hit the perfect weather window for the Eklutna glacier area, the recent windstorm had buffed the snow from the routes, and the low pressure was on its way back, elevating the temps to a reasonable 20+ degrees.

Skiing up to the Glacier

 

The Mitre was the obvious choice, having a plethora of lines to choose from. Jon gave me the lead and I went farther right than I ever have and found a very nice easy line of high quality ice that ended 200 feet later at a V-thread. Pretty much perfect really.

Top of Pitch One

 

I always forget how big the Mitre really is. In my mind its really only 3 pitches, because I always discount the snow and grade 2 pitches, but those are full 200 ft pitches, that I inevitably rope up for. Its really 5 pitches including the crux.

Top of the Third Pitch, looking at the Crux

 

 

The Sun had just set as we arrived at the base of the crux pitch, but neither Jon or I seemed to care. It was such a nice and enjoyable day out we didn't need to climb the crux by headlamp, but rather were content to bail back down before full darkness.

I really have mellowed out a lot this winter.