Goethe and Darwin 4.23.10-4.25.10

[d_mingori]

On Friday we set out over Piute Pass. It had snowed a little bit two days earlier, and the April sun was already hard at work. Though it wasn't much fresh snow, the intense heat had turned the surface into sticky glop.

Just one more day, and this stuff would probably transition to corn. But we had places to go, and had to be back to work on Monday. So up we went.

We tried not to get distracted by the chutes above the pass:


Getting up to the pass was a bit challenging. The heavy snow slowed us down considerably. On spring corn, this probably would have taken 3 hours. On Friday, we pushed pretty hard to make it in less than 8 hours. Thankfully, the travel got easier as we got higher in elevation, and we made it to Goethe Lake before dark.


From camp we had a great view of the north side of Goethe, and Alpine Col which we would be getting to the next day.


Sunset on the west side of Humphreys:


Dusk:


In the morning we got up and headed towards Goethe, climbing the bowl in the center of the north face.
Goethe has two summits. The left side being the true summit, and the right side holding the prime ski terrain. Since there isn't much elevation left to gain once you hit the ridge, we opted to get both.

We skinned up to the summit and took in the view.
Looking out towards Darwin, and the rest of the ground we still had to cover that day:


Then back down to the saddle and up the other side to the entrance of the chute.


The top was a little hammered by the wind:




But that changed as we got lower:






We returned to camp, cooked up a little water and headed over Alpine Col.
Looking back:


From the top of the Col looking out towards Darwin:


From there we dropped down into Darwin Canyon and continued back up to camp 2. The view was OK


Looking out towards the next days objective, Mt Darwin:


Dusk:


A quick approach to the base, a few switchbacks up the lower section and we were nearing the top:






From the summit ridge we got views of some excellent terrain, including one of the chutes on Picture Peak:


Then it was time to ride snowboards again.
Exiting the upper chute:


After that, every single turn was just like this:








Tracks:


From there we climbed back up to camp, packed it up, and headed over Lamarck Col. The ride down from the col was pretty good as well, but the camera was packed away and we were ready to get home. After getting through the slush at the lower elevations we arrived back at North Lake with a view of our start and finish. Piute Pass on the right, Lamarck Col on the left: