Big Four

February 19, 2006 Photo: Phil Fortier Phil proposed checking out the Dry Creek route on Big Four. Dave, Vincent, and I went along. The snow in the forest was rock-hard; the crampons went on immediately. We spent a lot of time crossing the creek. We thrashed through the woods, hiked up the avalanche debris, and climbed a debris-choked gully to the mid-face bench. The snow was bulletproof. On the bench we started post-holing through amazing crust. We got a look at the couloir and called it quits. The snow was miserable. We 'skied' the crust, the avy debris, and the bulletproof crap above the approach gully. After sidestepping a 35 degree slope for a ways, we took the skis off and downclimbed. BLAH. Phil went back with the Hummels and scooped us a few weeks later. Good job guys.