Pikes

Barr Trail.

Started at 6:23 am. Packed snow/ice up to where the Incline cutoff meets the Barr Trail. Then packed snow to Barr Camp. Above Barr Camp, still had a set of footsteps to follow until I was probably within a mile of the A Frame. Broke trail above there, but I was only sinking in about 4-6 inches most of the time. Nearing the A Frame, finding the trail became more difficult. Just past tree line, I completely lost the trail and just worked my way up until I hit the trail on the long traverse. Saw 7 bighorn sheep in this section. Followed the trail through the Cirque switchbacks until the long switchback back across the face. The far end of this switchback was covered by a snowfield, so at the start of this switchback, I headed up until I hit the 16 Golden Stairs sign. Briefly followed the trail here, but it was obscured by small snowfields, so I mostly headed up through the rocks to the summit.

I was quite surprised to have the summit all to myself. I fully expected the road to be open, the train to be running, and the shop to be open. Nope. Just me and the windless, frost-feathered, somewhat cloudy summit. Beautiful. Only stayed briefly before heading down.

Came down the same route until the long traverse. Part way across this, I headed straight down, initially on tundra/rocks, then occasional snowfields, then into the long, shallow snow gully which I followed down toward the A Frame, making good time. Detoured out of the gully above the A Frame, thinking I needed to head back left to meet the trail, but this was a mistake. Eventually worked back right and came out at the A Frame. Back on the trail, tried to jog a bit, but it was difficult with only my footprints to follow and the big pack until I reached the point where the previous footsteps had ended. Here, I managed to jog more down to Barr Camp. Here I stopped briefly to tend to a hot spot and chat with Teresa (Barr Camp caretaker) in the cabin. Jogged most of the way down, walking a few of the uphills. Passed Neal (Barr Camp caretaker) as he jogged back up to Camp. Then ran into Charlie Nuttelman and Tina as they were running up the W's.

Wore Microspikes the entire hike.

0:00 - Barr TH
1:02:20 - rock arch
2:23:44 - Barr Camp
4:20:40 - 3 miles to go sign
6:10:10 - summit
8:55:42 - rock arch
9:28:27 - Barr TH

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