Climbing At Phalon Lake, Snow Fungus- Saturday

Saturday morning Art and I got packed up and headed out to the wall once it was a bit warmer. We parked at our normal spot and hiked in.

It was a nice and sunny day and the sun was quite warm but the air was really crisp. The hike in was mellow and we got a nice view of the upper wall as we passed. It is one of our really big goals for the next year. We found on our way in that the entire valley has been bought by a timber company which is a MASSIVE benefit for us because there will be no development in the area. Our walls are protected and now we just need to talk to them about getting written permission for passage through their lands.

There was fungus everywhere through the forest and it was super cool to see the masses. They were all frozen solid but standing tall.

We got to the base of the wall and the sun was just hitting it. It was cold in the shade but the sun was warm.

The lake had a pretty large area of ice on it but a bit of open water in the middle.

So the sun hit the rock and I got geared up for my lead. It is not a hard route,m all of 5.7 maybe but the moss was bright green and moist so I had very little desire to free climb it. I wore my climbing shoes so was able to find foot holds on the rock, but I aid climbed all of it. It's about a 75-80 degree wall so less than vertical and it took me about 40 minutes to get up it. I got to the anchor on the wall then Art jugged up and cleaned the gear. I then rapped down to get my coat as I was freezing once I stopped climbing then jugged back to the anchor and belayed Art up the ramp to the anchor.

He got to the anchor area and fixed the line so I could quick jug up. Then I belayed him around the corner to where the anchor was to be drilled.

This is our nice new anchor that is at the top of a killer arete that we will climb next year when it is a lot warmer. We have a ton of work to do on the wall to clean the loose rock and the masses of moss everywhere. I love my hammer drill, each 3"+ hole took 30 seconds to drill and the anchor was done in very little time.

We managed to get down off the wall and hike out as sun was blocked out by the clouds which ended up warming the air a bit, the clouds locked some of the warm in. As we were hiking out we tromped through the snow and this bunch of mushrooms was sticking out of the snow. This was just one of the hundreds of such patches I saw on the hike. This was a REALLY good Fall for fungus.

We ended up back at the yurt and Art made bison burgers and we drank till late. I realized that he and I have been friends and climbing for 30 years, and are still going strong. We have goals and climbs scheduled for this next year and we are in our 40s.