Thanks Steve. Sorry for not clarifying last night. We crashed
I wasn't comfortable letting him glissade the very top of the chute so we down climbed, me first kicking steps and him above me. The boot pack we came up had been over-slid by others and was soft/slick enough that I actually lost footing and had to arrest there.
Really easy to stop but just to illustrate to others that the Axe is the tool needed for the chute. My son had no problem coming down, glissading and arresting to stop a few times as well.
We saw several parties above the chute heading up as we were descending with no axes or crampons/spikes that must have managed somehow.
Weirdly, there was a solitary boot with a crampon still attached half way up the chute over near the rocks. Not sure what that was about. Anybody? Left over from one of those evacs last month?
My son and I are in Utah and we try to hike every weekend. For the last few months (with this trip in mind) we have concentrated on peaks with snow/ice which he had not had much experience, mostly in the Wasatch range with elevations in the 9-10K range.
The Memorial day weekend before Whitney we climbed Mt Peale (12,726) and Mt Waas (12,336) in the La Sal range near Moab, both of which has long frozen snow ascents and similar descents just to make sure we where ready.
I will add a few photos. Sorry there aren't more as I was trying to keep up with my kid!
