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Shayne
and I arrived at the American Basin trailhead at approx. 4pm.
We were contemplating whether or not we should wait until the
morning or go for it. The late start would mean that part of
the decent would be in the dark, but given our luck with 14ers
earlier in the week and the brevity of the climb, we decided
give it a shot.
We
started at Approx 4:45pm, following the Jeep trail just below
Handies summit. The trail is a class 1 until you reach 12,600ft.
It than turns to the east on a fairly, well defined class 2
route to the summit. The Roach book again is a little off. We
started up the "old" trail and about 3/4ers of the
way up, saw a sign stating that the trail was closed due to
erosion. Don't know if someone had moved the sign on purpose
just to confuse the hell out of everyone or if it was just bad
placement by the CFI.
Either way, by that time we were to far into the climb and decided
to carryon to the ridge.
Once
we reached the Handies South ridge we could clearly see the
new trail behind us. It seemed to be slightly longer but not
quite as steep (Still a class2). At this point the sky began
to make some noise and a little sleet began to fall. 25 minutes
later were on the summit. As we wandered over to Point 13,577,
the clouds cleared just enough for us notice that we had walked
right over Handies summit and were headed toward Whitecross
Mountain.The clearing of the clouds was brief and as we where
heading back to the summit, the sky's closed up. On the summit
rested for about five minutes and looked for the summit log,
but couldn't find it and with the storms getting worse we decided
head back down. We received rain, hail and sleet during the
entire decent. The New trail was in great shape and was easy
enough to navigate with a flashlight. We arrived back to the
truck, soaking wet, at about 8:45pm.
Even
with the weather it was an enjoyable climb, short but enjoyable.
-Scott
Parry
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