Thanks all for the replies. It's great having a forum like this to hear from those with experience. My buddy briefly looked at how much it would be to get the assistance of a guide, based off some of the recommendations here. The cost would be more than we could afford. If having a guide would be the only safe way to do this, then we'd have to consider a different route or a trip elsewhere. I watched some videos posted here by some of you. Looks sporty for sure and I wouldn't be comfortable going down without rope, and even then, it would take good weather conditions before I would want to attempt it. In the end, neither one of us want to set ourselves up for failure or worse. With this being said, a few more questions:
1. If we carried rope, are there sufficient places to anchor up the final 400'? I'm sure it depends on the amount of snow fall recently, but do most people use ice anchors? From some pictures I've seen, looks like relying on self arrest (vs rope) would be difficult to do due to the steepness.
2. Would the main trail be a "safer” alternative? I know it's long and we'd probably be breaking trail the whole way, but if there's anything we have on our side for this trip, it's a lot of time and we're training pretty hard for it. If the biggest challenge along the main trail is the difficulty of trail breaking, I'd prefer to tackle that vs potentially technical routing.
3. Are conditions often favorable for avalanches on the main trail during January?
Thanks again!
Rob
