Leatherman via the Ridge Route

Sat. we climbed Leatherman via the saddle and up the ridge. My partner Rob has climbed alot of major mountians in the US/Alaska so I felt safe. This was my first snow climb, although I have done alot of Fall climbing including all the 12'ers last fall.
The day: Started at 6:30, Sunrise, we hiked up Sawmill Gulch and didnot real get any snow until we hit the turn off the old road to the trial. I have done this route 2 other times so I knew the route. But the trial was covered with snow. We slogged up to the saddle. I think I should have carried and used snow shoes but we elected to leave them in the car.

The Climb: We decided to go up the ridge which statated with a ice field for 200-300', side kicking with crampons, then there is a cross over to a 40' section of soft snow and some real exposure below. This was the only part that made me think of lifes bigger picture. After that we could get on the scree trail with some light snow and we could make good time going up the next section to the base of the major cliffs. We crossed over to the first snow chute. We climbed it moving left when we had route choices, The snow was deeper here and I felt safe. We came out on the ridge about 30 meter below the summit. Summit time about 8 hrs.

Descent: We descended down the main bowl right off the top and side hilled back to the saddle. I did not see any indications of other climbs up the mountain. This is a way I climbed when there was no snow. We hiked back to the car, stopped at Pickles in Arco and met 2 hikers (Dan and ?) They had climbed 11,308 mountain. Drove home and got back at 1 AM.

Overall: The weather was a 10, snow was a 10, we climbed through all types of snow.
The calves are sore due to using crampons and alot of post holing. Total day: 13 hours, AWESOME TRIP.

This was a 50 yr. bucket list goal. Now I need to get back on the bike, we have a ride from Boise to Stanley May 19th., Sun Valley to Boise on the back roads this June, Oct. 13th Rim to Rim in the Grand Canyon along with many other bucket list items.

Climb on!
Climb up!