Ten days after my aborted solo attempt(more like recon/drive by)here, and three days after returning from Chicago Basin, I wisened up, rallied a partner, and returned. Sean and I drove the long way(Independence Pass closed) down to the Como Lake Road. Managing to get he truck up higher than ever, all the way to the small downhill section of the road, by the abandoned cabins, we set up a car camp and got ready.

We were up early, we still had a few miles to go on foot, opting for hiking boots on the dry, loose road. We switched to ski boots upon arrival at snow, at Como Lake, the snow was good and frozen, like we wanted it. Higher up on the route we'd be happy to have potential loose rock frozen to the mountain as much as possible. The hourglass 'pinch' on the route can be extremely dangerous for rockfall.

Cramponing above the lake we reached the ridge and switched footwear, again. The next long stretch of the route is a sidehill of scree, devoid of snow. In ski boots it can be clumsy, time consuming and dangerous. We took five and switched back to trail shoes, saving 10x that much time and effort as opposed to reamining in our ski boots. A short while later we were back at the snow and switched again.

Our timing was good, for the day and the season. We were early enough that we saw no serious rockfall and the snow would be safe to ski, and we weren't too late in the spring that the line no longer went off the summit. It started right at the summit register. Perfect.

Seeing a host of familiar names in the log— Dav's group from early on in winter and Frank and Jordan from earlier that month, kind of made it seem like its a small world(or at least community). Sean and I hung out for a while. Little Bear is a tough one for many, even when dry. We felt priveleged to get this one so smoothly, apart from some truck body damage occuring on the way out. Damn that road.

I was psyched to have skied #50. Next I needed to take care of some loose ends, it was time for a redo of Wilson Peak.