My friend John Laurino from Atalaya Search & Rescue joined me for an attempt at Handies Peak (14,048') yesterday. Originally we had planned on climbing Redcloud and Sunshine together, but neither of us felt sufficiently conditioned for that climb and it turned out that the road up to American Basin was in great shape. Click the picture below for a photogallery.

The short version of the trip report goes like this: We didn't make it. The long version is here. The medium version goes like this: We had issues with missing crampons, broken snowshoes, and missing sunscreen that left us in a position of rapidly deteriorating snow. In the bowl below the key saddle, one of us didn't have crampons and thus couldn't go straight up the steep slope. The other didn't have snowshoes and thus couldn't afford to wait for the snow to soften. We got to the 13,500' saddle which offered some great views and a really tempting view of the summit, but agreed to turn around in the name of safety.

Regardless, it was a lot of fun. It was great to get out into the mountains again after so long. I'm really paying the price for not having remembered sunscreen, though. My entire face is bright red with the exception of bright white areas where my glacier goggles were.