Perfect day for an ascent of Tomyhoi and Yellow Aster Butte. Fantastic views, great weather, minimal bugs.
Most of the path up to Tomyhoi was clear with an obvious trail. We tried to avoid the obvious snow traverse by going high, but ended up on a gendarme with no obvious way down. I also tried going around the top of the snow, but the gap between the rock and snow got too wide, so had to downclimb a snow ridge back to the bootpack, which was a little dicey especially since I had approach shoes with microspikes.
The last scrambling part looks significantly worse than it actually is. The lower and middle parts have obvious holds, the upper part is more exposed but lower angle. The gabled ridge traverse after that is snow free, we traversed climbers right with no problem, but the exposure to the right is significant. From there, the path to the summit is pretty clear with an easy ledge traverse, then a short gully scramble up and a ridge traverse to the actual summit.
On the way out, we went up to Yellow Aster Butte, which also had some exposed moves on the way down to the saddle and the final approach to the summit.
Detailed trip report: www.wta.org/go-hiking/trip-re...
Music by Olexy from pixabay.com (Morning Garden Acoustic Chill) and Alexander Nakarada (Beyond, pt.2)
00:05 Hiking start
00:26 Marmots playing
00:35 Hiking down to tarns
00:45 Up to Tomyhoi Peak
01:17 Crossing the snow
01:41 Scrambling start
02:05 Climbing slab
02:38 Gabled ridge traverse
03:28 Tomyhoi Summit
03:51 Back to tarns
04:11 Yellow Aster Butte
04:26 YAB Summit