Thatchtop (Early SPring)
Date: April 15, 2023 (Sat)Trip Report #: 614Partner: solo
Route: S-Shaped Gully to South Slope (~9.3 miles round trip, ~3500 ft gain/loss, snowy)
An up and over spring ascent in sub-par conditions.
It had been one of those winter/early springs where sunny days fell on weekdays and weekends experienced snow and wind. I was ready to do some rock climbing in the sun! But given I had no control over the weather, I was taking advantage of the opportunity to spend time in the snowy mountains and get some higher-elevation fitness. For today's objective, I decided to try to get to the summit of Thatchtop. I had been to the summit only once before, on The Walk in the Park Traverse (aka Great Wheel) in July 2020. I was curious about ascending via the S-Shaped gully, a class 2 gully that cuts through the lower cliffs on the north side of Thatchtop.
The conditions (wallowing down low and unconsolidated snow over talus up high) and weather (cold temperatures with blowing snow and low clouds obscuring any views) were not ideal, but I was determined to get to the summit. The terrain on the ascent was not overly pleasant, so I decided to descend the south slope to Solitude and Shelf Lakes (I had snowshoed up to these two lakes a few weeks previous and was familiar with a good route back to the trail); the south side route is longer—5.6 miles compared to 3.7 miles for the north side appraoch I had taken—but I was happy with my choice.
My round trip time was 6 hours and 50 minutes (3:40 up, 0:10 summit, 3:00 down). With the conditions and terrain, it took me longer than I thought it would, but it was a good morning of exercise over some new (to me) terrain.
Below is a sampling of photos from my adventure.
