It rained continuously all night so another lazy start. After breakfast we got dressed to day hike and scout out the pass we were hoping to take to the Jago. Rob decided to stay at camp so the five of us headed out around 11am, a couple of knee high fords in the first mile. We got up beyond the narrow mouth of the valley where it opened up again but there was large swaths of rotten snow all around. We continued higher up, postholing through the rotten snow into boggy tundra below and crossing the creek a couple times. No good places to camp that we could find amongst all the rock and snow.
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| Day hike up the second headwaters of the Sheenjek |
Krista's foot became numb so she decided to head back to camp and Matt joined her. Matthew, Mat, and I continued up. We got quite high, about a third mile and 400 ft below our pass. The route required traversing a snowy bowl, not an exciting prospect for us considering the snow was rotten, cracking and settling below our weight on the ridge. Additionally, we heard and saw some slides on other slopes in the valley. We decided it wasn't worth risking a slide and turned around. We could see caribou tracks far below us in the snow doing the same thing - reach the last of the valley floor then turn around and head back - so we knew we were doing the right thing. The clouds did open up a little to reveal the peaks but it was only for a brief second before the constant light drizzle resumed.
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| Climbing up to a possible pass into the Jago |
Didn't see any large animals in the valley, even on the way down. In fact, the only animals we saw were some birds. There was a nondescript brown pair way up high, all fluffed up to stay warm. Didn't know what they were. The other birds were small black and white ones of striking pattern. Matthew informed us they were Snow Bunting, apparently rare except in the Brooks mountains. Matthew did find an intact sheep skull with horns still attached, just about full curl. Must have been a fairly recent death, man it was stinky.
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| Snow Bunting bird |
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| Matthew's sinister finding |
We straggled back into camp in the rain around 7:30PM. Matt & Krista were relieved to see us coming stating they were going to send a rescue jet boil if we didn't arrive by 8:00PM. We changed into some dry clothes then settled in for dinner under the tarp. It was still raining hard so we all got into our tents. Matthew eventually called Kirk for an update and weather report since we've had three days of rain with no sign of clearing. Kirk informed us that the storm is suppose to clear out tomorrow and better weather to come the next day. We informed him of our inability to pass into the Jago and that we'll most likely head to the Hulahula river system. Fell right asleep after that.
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| Camp at the far end of the canyon |
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