Sphinx is fat

Garrett, Brenon, and I climbed the Lowe Route yesterday. We had hoped to get on the new line right of the Earl-Trimble but another party was already at the base when we reached it. It looked like the route had been climbed at least the day before since there were obvious pick marks in the ice. I wonder though if it hadn't been climbed in previous years esp. since it easily could have been mistaken for the Earl-Trimble. It does look like a great line (check out the pic below). We found the ice on the Lowe Route to be in excellent condition. The WI5 pillar was in perfect shape. The ice was a bit more brittle than I expected but still made for great climbing. The upper pitches were fat with more ice than last year (which was also considered a fat year). With the wind howling out of the SW, the North Face was mostly sheltered. However, we got our share of spindrift sloughs cascading down the route from the winds buffeting above. Made for interesting climbing! [img]http://montanaice.com/forums/user_images/IMG_0001.jpg[/img] A shot of the "new" route right of the Earl-Trimble [img]http://montanaice.com/forums/user_images/IMG_0002.jpg[/img] The WI5 pillar on the Lowe Route is just right of center. Notice the spindrift sloughs shooting off the route. [img]http://montanaice.com/forums/user_images/IMG_0003.jpg[/img] Getting barraged by the constant spindrift [img]http://montanaice.com/forums/user_images/IMG_0004.jpg[/img] A lucky break in the cascade to finish off the pillar [img]http://montanaice.com/forums/user_images/IMG_0005.jpg[/img] A fat 2nd pitch Snow conditions on the North Face were pretty good. With the storm hitting today it could be quite different up there now. There's definitely a hard crust for things to slide on top of.