Windom Peak

Via the class 3 northwest face. Whoops, poorly placed cairns and footsteps made fools out of two climbers who were seeking to climb the west ridge class 2+ route. We ended up acheiving the ridge 3 quarters of the way to the summit from the saddle between peak 18 and windom. don't do as we did. An early season and early morning climb plagued us with rock hard snow and verglas. Long moderate angled snow traverses required crampons and ice axes, and loose ice coated rock did not make changing in and out of crampons much fun. The climb took more time than we were expecting. Once on the ridge we had some fun bouldering over a chaos of loose car-sized rocks. It's safe and fun although somewhat exposed. we corrected our mistake on the descent and were amazed at how much easier the west ridge was verses a snow covered northwest face. We bagged an attempt on Sunlight and pioneered a descent route down the steep talus into the north west basin below Peak 18's steep west face. Sunlight will have to wait till next year. #3 for me.