Mount Carillon (13,552) - June 11, 2011

Jim joined me for this fun day. Most mountaineers will shrug off Carillon for it's nearby and taller Russel, afterall, they share the same route until the very end. I have done neither and with limited hiking time this summer, wanted to knock this one off my list. It also gave me good recon on the route up to the Russell-Carillon plateau and a looksy at Russel's east ridge. The NoFo was mostly snow free, but the snow was solid from LBSL onward. Jim traveled without goot tools, but I cramponed up at LBSL for quicker and more confident snow travel. I went up the chute to the plateau mostly on the snow, while Jim chose the summer route, which was mostly snowfree. The snow was firm, too firm to glissade on the descent, so we stayed on dirt and rock for the descent. We made a slight variation to the ascent to Carillon from the saddle, dropping a bit to the SW slope and then scrambling up the boulders, avoiding most of the snow. Final summit block approach from the SW was a fun cl3 scramble. We took advantage of the snowpack from the slabs to LBSL on the descent and linked 4 glissade for a fun ride down!