MR MArch 24 2005, lots of snow!

Me SoCal Mtneer, and David Snow got together and despite the weather warnings and rep[orts of heay snowfall in the preceeding days of our climb, we decided to go forward with the plan anyway. One because we had everythign ready and second becasue there was a chance that we might've gotten better weather. We started our climb around 2AM on Wedsnesday from the closure on the Portal road adnwent throught he night all the way ot LBL. The way was good and the snow was soft and deep, we actually had a good workout. We aternated the lead on the climb and that made the trail breaking rocess a little less tiring. I broke trail oin hte last section of the climb to the LBL and that , my friends, was a good workout...I was thigh deep in snow WITH my snowshoes on , and it was relentless up until the last little crest on that section. ONce on the LBL area we decided to sleep a littel since it was 610AM and we were tired. We were awaken by the thump sounds of small avalanches going doun in the upper parts of hte route and the sounds of rock and ice fall with the warming temps. We woke up and decided that it waoul be wiser to turn back adn come back another day. It was defficult to do that decision , manly becasue I come from far away and the plane tickets are not that cheap...and the desire to reach the summit was very strong, in all of us, I believe. The steeper sections of the route would have been too dangerous to cross and a slide would be, in my opinion, inevitable taking in consideration the conditions oof hte snow and temperature that day. It was fun to be there and meet other SP members. Iwill definetely go back, this is part of moutaineering , sometimes we get it , sometimes we have to wait until the mountain allows us to do it. Gotta love it !!