Pikes Peak

Climbed Y couloir from bottomless pit on Saturday. Downclimbed, scrambled and glissaded from the highway(about 1 mile up the road from devil's playground). Basically went across Rumdoodle ridge and just found the path of least resistance that wasn't vertical. Started at around 8:00 am, got to the bottom at about 9:30.Nasty clouds started to build early that day but we decided to approach the snowfield at te bottom of the Y and make a decision wether or not to bail at that point.By the time we got to the base of the climb it began to clear up again so we went for it. Half way up, a large supercell had formed and turned on us. Nothing like being 1300 ft up a 45plus degree couloir in a thunderstorm. Since retreat really wouldn't have been a safe option(tough glissade,still have to re climb rumdoodle ridge) we kept going and figured if it got too bad we'd either retreat at Hero traverse or hide under a rock. By the the time we summitted, the storm had moved on, but electrical charge was still high and everything metal(axes, crampons, wedding rings, fillings, you name it)was buzzing. Fortunately, we had a cor on top and made a dash for it after summitting. Wouldn't want to repeat those conditions, but climbing the Y was an incredible experience.The only down side was because of the late start from the highway(gate opens at 7 am) the snow was mushy. Next time I'll either use Hero travers(higher up, shorter trip) or hike Barr to bottomless pit and bivy(earlier start longer trip).