Posted by Alec LaLonde
Sat, 03 Jan 2009 04:25:00 GMT
Continued from Part Four
After scarfing down a quick lunch we three set back off on the trail to the highest and Northernmost point of our trek: Everest Base Camp at 5340m (17.5k ft). The trail traverses a rocky moraine with fantastic views of the adjacent Khumbu glacier and the huge Khumbu cirque rimmed by the giants of Nuptse, Everest, Khumbutse and Pumo Ri. Soon we find ourselves winding around on the dirty glacier itself, marveling at the 15m seracs all around us. Before we know it, the jumble of tents seemingly strewn over the glacier appears and we are there.
Everest Base Camp
To be honest, it was a bit anticlimactic: Base Camp isn't really a set place but wherever each expedition decides to plop a bunch of tents near the foot of the Khumbu Icefall. In this case, three expeditions had just kicked off for the post-monsoon season, from Italy, France, and Korea. The French camp happened to be the closest so we struck up a conversation with a rather entertaining Parisian dude, probably in his late 20s. He mentioned that he had competed in (won?) the Everest Marathon a few years ago, and that they were being sponsored by a French television station and were focusing on recording medical data during the ascent. The expedition was already about a month in and we could spot some climbing Sherpas descending the icefall through the binoculars -- pretty cool stuff. After some gabbing we take off back to Gorak Shep, arriving near dusk.
That night is horrendous -- I wake up at midnight or so with by far the most splitting headache of my life -- it literally feels like my head is wedged in an ever-tightening vise. I pop some more (magic) ibuprofen and grovel to the toilet, expecting to hurl my guts out. It never comes, so I go back to bed and lay in agony til the Vitamin I kicks in and I fade back to dreamland.
We had planned to wake early for the steep slog up to Kala Patthar at 5650 m (18.5k ft), and end up setting out at 7am or so. The timing is excellent -- we are behind most of the crowds and have a decent amount of time after sunset to enjoy the views in relative solitude. I wake up feeling fantastic and manage to book it up the hill in under an hour! The Brits meet me up a bit later and we (they) celebrate with Marmite (*vomit*) and crackers. We take pictures of one another and I bask in a heavenly panorama of the entire Khumbu region. I am quite content.
On the Khumbu Glacier
Later in the day I stumble on Cameron and the posse of Australians he had been traveling with. We agree to meet in Lobuche tomorrow so he has time to go to base camp and Kala Patthar. Tanya, Darren and I depart Gorak Shep in the mid-morning and make our way back down to the nicely low-lying (or not) Lobuche, where we hang out, read and nap for the rest of the day. The next day I meet up with Cam and a couple other Brits, while Tanya and Darren take off on a different path to make their way over Cho La and eventually Gokyo, a supposedly spectacular adjacent valley. The four of us instead descend back to Pheriche and the Himalayan Hotel, where we happen upon Simon and Andy again. I jokingly ask if they ever left the hotel at all and we have a tame evening of cards.
The next day we take eight hours or so (an exceptionally long day by lazy Nepal standards) to get back to Namche Bazaar, where we had pledged to support the fledgling alcoholic merchandising industry as best we can. About twenty beers later (at 11.5k feet mind you) we are drunkenly carrying on in the hotel restaurant about football, politics and god knows what else. Good times.
The next and last day is pretty typical, save the random rendezvous at an Irish Pub in Lukla (wait, what? Yes, an Irish Pub. They even served Guinness.) before we fly out bright and early the next morning. We are the very first flight out and by 9am are checked into a Kathmandu hotel for the next leg of our journey...
To be continued...
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Posted by Alec LaLonde
Tue, 02 Dec 2008 05:15:00 GMT
Continued from Part Three
A few hours after setting off, the trees start to slowly fade and I find myself in a sub-alpine meadow at about 4000m (13,100ft). I sit and gaze at a massive gash in the mountain across the river, caused by a recent landslide. As I'm daydreaming about climbing Aba Dablam, now shrouded in clouds, some familiar faces crest the hill behind me. It's Darren and Tanya -- somehow they had gotten behind me. We greet each other warmly and set off together towards Pheriche, our next destination at 4200m (13.8kft). Soon we've crossed the roaring river again (on a sketchy! plywood bridge). By 1pm or so we're situated in our hotel of choice, the Himalayan Hotel, which would become by far the most memorable of the trek.
Pheriche
As we sit down for lunch a group of other Brits run into us that Darren recognized from earlier. We celebrate our early arrival with a beer (quite effective at 14k feet!) and a delicious lunch, and decide right then and there to take a rest day the next day; not because of any need for acclimatization but rather due to the (relative) poshness of our environs: a brand-new cozy dining room with seemingly unlimited free reading material (so key!)
At Pheriche there is a semi-permanent camp of the Himalayan Rescue Assocation which happened to be staffed by three Americans while we were there. At three we decide to attend a talk about altitude sickness and it is excellent. The dude had a Gamow Bag, and due to my wearing an altimeter I got to take it for a ride. The doc gave it a pump for a few minutes and I watched my altimeter drop hundreds of meters at a time, until it read 3400m or so. It was pretty cool -- a bit claustrophobic but extremely effective for treating altitude sickness.
We spent the next couple of days lounging around the hotel, reading, playing cards and eating. I took a short day trip to Chhukung (4730m/15.5k ft), another beautiful (forgive me if I sound like a broken record, but everything is stunningly beautiful up there) village nestled below the giant South face of Lhotse (8516m/28k ft). Unfortunately I was pretty much in the clouds and couldn't see much. A nearby hill by the name of Chhukung Ri (5550m) would've been by next objective, but I figured there'd be nothing to see up there. Instead I headed back down the valley to Dingboche and Pheriche. Little did I know Cameron was staying in Dingboche when I walked past!
Early the next morning Darren, Tanya and I departed (Simon, one of the others, was feeling the altitude a bit so they stayed behind) for our next destination, Lobuche, at 4910m (16.1k ft). It was going to be a big day elevation-wise, a gain of 700m, so we took it fairly slow. It's worth mentioning that about Pheriche, the hiking is never difficult or even strenuous, but the altitude starts to make things a bit unpleasant. By lunchtime we arrived, and right around then I started to feel a bit dazed. On my expedition to Mexico a few years ago I didn't feel any effect from altitude until around 15k feet -- this time I was a bit more acclimatized. Regardless, I felt a bit spacey during lunch and felt a moderate headache come on -- I decided to pop some Ibuprofen and take a nap.
After waking up I felt awesome -- the perfect cure for a hangover! Err, altitude sickness rather. I ambled down for dinner, and there I met a group of Americans in their 50s who were going to attempt Lobuche East, a 6100m trekking peak just west of town. It was especially interesting talking to their Sherpa, a former guide on
Everest, about the nature of commercial expeditions as well as the guiding lifestyle.
Gorak Shep's alpine beach
The next morning we set off again early, excited to make it to the terminal town of the trek, Gorak Shep at 5140m (16.9k ft). We were all feeling pretty good, with slight headaches easily remedied with Ibuprofen (the wonder drug!)
Again we made excellent time and were able to have lunch at our destination. We seemed to have escaped the scourge of the clouds, as well, and finally were able to admire the astounding peaks all around us. The next day's climb of Kala Pattar, the trek's terminus, was looking pretty good, not to mention Base Camp...
To be continued...
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Posted by Alec LaLonde
Sat, 22 Nov 2008 02:56:00 GMT
Continued from Part Two
I step outside our room into the courtyard, turn to go into the kitchen, and am stopped in my tracks. A massive white peak glows in the twilight above. After a cloudy afternoon it is my first good close look at a 6000m peak, presenting itself in dramatic fashion. I snap a picture and smile into the dining room.
Thamserku (6618m) looming over the hotel
A few hours earlier Cam and I set foot on the trail. I was excited to get out of Lukla and finally into some peace and quiet in the countryside. It came quickly and was wonderful. Though this section of the trek is fairly heavily populated, the pace of living quite suits someone who grew up in the woods of Northern New York. We meander through the towns, greeting other trekkers and porters, and eventually make our way to a waterfall by the trail. A short, steep climb brings us to what looks like an amazing hotel. It is perched on a hill with one side looking at the waterfall and the other the fertile river valley below. We immediately get a double room ($3 USD), ditch our packs, and go the dining room to order some food and a gigantic pot of milk tea. There we meet a solo trekker from Switzerland and a British couple. They were headed up, and in a few days I would be joining them.
Dinner was delicious and by 8pm we had passed out, weary from the long day. This would be the start of a pattern -- bed near dusk, rise at dawn. A very welcome change from my night owl lifestyle back home. The next morning we headed out early and walked for a few hours before making it to Namche Bazaar (3440m/11,300ft), a beautiful terraced town cut into a bowl in a hillside. Namche is the "Sherpa capital" and largest town in the Khumbu, so we had our choice of dozens of hotels in town. We ended up picking one right in the middle -- it had a spectacularly positioned dining room looking out over the gorge to the Southwest, from which we proceeded to gorge ourselves on lunch.
From the start of the trek Cam had been complaining of weariness and coughing, so we decided to take a rest day; mainly for acclimatization but also to give his body a chance to shake out the respiratory infection. We slept in, changed to a "luxury room" (attached shower! wooohoo!), and I set off on a day hike to Thame, a famous Sherpa village four miles up the churning Bhote Kosi Nadi river. It's a gorgeous walk along a hillside above the river and I chat with a group of cute Sherpa kids on break from school in town. By one pm I've made it to Thame (3800m) and have a huge lunch of (unlimited!) Dhaal Bhat, a dish of rice, lentil soup, and vegetable curry. The day is rather cloudy but once in a while the clouds would part to reveal a massive 6000m snow-capped peak a seemingly stone's throw away.
By the time I make it back to Namche it's late afternoon and drizzling a bit -- we order dinner and I take a (much-needed) shower. Cam is starting to feel better, so we plan to rise early and hike to the next town.
We round a bend in the trail, and something strangely familiar comes into view. In a gap in the clouds two massive mountains appear, and I recognize one instantly: Everest. I stop in awe for a few seconds and snap some pictures -- though they're still 25km away they seem larger than life. It's a pretty, warm day and I can't help thinking about what the conditions would be up there..
First glimpse of Everest and Lhotse
A steep drop back down to the Dudh Kosi and back up the other side eventually brings us to Tengboche (3860m/12,660ft). Its famous monastery dominates the town and owns half of the hotels in the village. I know the view is supposed to be incredible, but the afternoon clouds have again robbed any chance of sightseeing. At this point Cameron was feeling pretty rough and was anticipating needing two days to rest. Not looking forward to sitting idly for two days, we decide to split up and meet up at the top of the trek. Luckily, we run into Darren and Tanya (the Brits) again at our hotel at chat it up over dinner. We're enthused to keep going and I decide to go along with them the next morning.
I wake up excitedly the next morning and peer out the window at a massive cirque of peaks. Rushing outside, I gaze in the splendor of the most superb view of my life. Nothing had ever even come close. Two massive peaks (Thamserku [6618m] and Kangtega [6783m]) dominate, and I mean utterly own, the sky to the Southeast. Their glaciers creep down 2800 vertical meters of their flanks, connecting to the summits less than 6km away. To the North Ama Dablam's picturesque summit foreshortened the Everest-Lhotse massif just beyond -- stunning alpine scenery at 6am.
I pack up after breakfast and bid Cam adieu, setting off on my own. The trail drops down to a thick rhododendron forest and I'm not psyched to be off on my own...
To be continued...
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Posted by Alec LaLonde
Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:07:00 GMT
I'm sitting here in a hotel dining room at 11,500 feet (3440 m) surfing the internet. Ah yes, satellite internet; not cheap at 10 rupees / minute but almost expected in this day in age. Needless to say, this is gonna be a short post.
On the 30th I touched down in Kathmandu, Nepal to a warm rainy evening after a layover in Abu Dhabi, United Aram Emirates. The taxi ride to my hotel was absolutely insane -- anyone who's been in a large city in India would understand...immediately I was put off by the rather destitute environs and by 5am the next morning Cameron and I were off to the airport to escape to the mountains.
So two days ago we landed in Lukla and started our trek -- now I'm in Namche Bazaar at the last large village before continuing our ascent to Everest Base Camp (5530 m). Kala Pattar, a lookout point adjacent to Base Camp, is our ultimate goal.
I have been amazed thus far at the magnificent generosity and warmth of the Nepali people. Out here in the mountains there's next to no worries about crime or even distrust, and I expect this to continue as we get higher.
Oh, and the scenery's pretty good. Pictures are forthcoming...
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Posted by Alec LaLonde
Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:06:00 GMT
When I first moved out here last year the Wasatch Mountains were my church spires -- I would drive by and admire them longingly without really exploring their sanctuaries. Hiking in their vicinity would only fuel an urge for more tactile encounters -- the huge rock walls looming in so many crannies and canyons.
One such rock wall stands out; the North Star in a sea of celestial stone. A lighthouse, visible from anywhere in the Wasatch Valley, separating the harem of the North from the sheep to the South -- always there keeping watch. It's called the Lone Peak Cirque, and it holds the single greatest bounty of rock in hundreds of miles of mountains in either direction.
"Did you hear something?" The glow from an oblate moon illuminates Tom's head crooked to the side.
"Relax, dude, it's nothing. You're hearing things." We continue on the steep trail. Within twenty minutes the crackles of campfires eases our collective unease. Ten minutes later our own blaze adds to the soothing familiarity of the wilderness campground -- we are at 8000 feet and a mere three miles from civilization, yet we might as well be in the Yukon. Lulled conversation yields to sleep.
By seven AM we're psyched again -- it's only a few miles to the Cirque, the weather is beautiful, and we've got a full day of stellar climbing ahead. Two thousand vertical feet with 55-pound packs later the psychness wanes. We hike around a ridge and the first two-hundred foot (completely undeveloped) wall of perfect granite emerges. It's gonna be a great weekend.
"Climb on!" Tom makes the first of many foot jams in a crack and leads into the unknown. We are on the Lowe Route (5.8), the most classic 5.8 in the Wasatch put up by the inimitable George and Jeff Lowe. Tom glides up the perfect hand crack, jamming in cams and feet and hands for 100 feet to a two-piton anchor. It's on.
The Lone Peak Cirque near dusk
The third pitch is phenomenal, a surprisingly well-protected 120' of face climbing by a finger crack. We top out to a sprawling view of the Provo Valley, flanked by Box Elder Peak and the gigantic Mt. Timpanogos. After a Clif Bar we scramble down, make a couple rappels and hike back to camp.
The main impetus for making the grueling hike up to the cirque was to climb one of the three classic routes on the Summit Wall. It doesn't get any better than five pitches of perfect rock leading to a 11,000+ foot summit topout, at least in Utah. By 10 am we were at the base of the wall, ready to climb to the summit.
It's all Vertical Smiles for us as Tom heads off to lead the fourth pitch.
"Are you sure this is the right way?" Tom shouts from a stance at a bolt. We're six hundred feet above the cirque and quite confused. Maybe it's the altitude.
"Yeah, just go straight up to the right of that block"
"All I see is roofs!"
"Yeah buddy!" For once I'm happy to be belaying.
Tom leading the fourth pitch of Vertical Smile (5.10a II) -- the green trapezoid in the incut photo is our position
After a quick hang on a #2 Camalot Tom makes short work of the six-foot horizontal roof. It looms closer and closer as I follow on top-rope. Seven hundred feet off the deck I throw in a hand jam above my head and pull with all my might. What a rad pitch.
We don't top out right on the summit, but a ten-minute scramble puts us right there on the North Star herself. We bask in the panorama, snap a few shots and head back to Earth.
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Posted by Alec LaLonde
Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:55:00 GMT
Or not. I have been using my still-broken clavicle as an excuse to get back into some activities I've been neglecting lately, mainly mountaineering and snowshoeing. From the second weekend after the accident I've been out in the mountains in some form on a weekly basis. I started slowly, peddling around Ferguson and Mill Creek Canyons but have been steadily stepping up to longer, more strenuous days in the mountains.
My weeks are still pretty boring since I can't night ski or climb at the gym, but I have been making up for it each weekend in spades. This past weekend I put in about 20 miles in the mountains with ascents of Mt. Olympus (a walk-up except for a short steep stretch at the end) and a long tour six miles into the backcountry in Mill Creek Canyon. The latter was awesome; the first bona-fide backcountry day in the finest deep powder Utah has to offer. Over the next couple of months I'll be focusing more and more on the mountaineering aspect as the avalanche danger subsides and my shoulder gets stronger. For now I'm happy going on long tours (with one ski pole..) until I have built up some strength in both arms to use ice tools or do some scrambling.
My shoulder has gotten remarkably stronger over the past few weeks, which has made life much more pleasant and allowed me to resume right-handedness. The climbing will come back with time; otherwise things are pretty much back to normal.
Photos from my weekend jaunts will be up soon...
Posted in Skiing, Mountaineering, Hiking/Backpacking | no comments
Posted by Alec LaLonde
Tue, 01 Jan 2008 22:52:00 GMT
Well, the holidays are about over. I'm enjoying my day off much like I enjoyed much of last week: being lazy around the house. Sunday night (the 30th) I returned from NY so it's back to real life.
New Year's this year was a bit different. I had originally planned to stick around NY, but then I realized that New Year's kinda sucks and I didn't want to take time off just to be able to celebrate it at home. However, almost none of my friends here were back from their holidays so it was looking to be a pretty lame evening. Me being me, I thought, well hell I'll just go climb a mountain to ring in the New Year. So I did.
At around 8:30 I took off for Mill Creek Canyon to hike Grandeur Peak. Since I still hadn't purchased a pair of snowshoes I had a couple options: bareboot it with the hopes of an existing tracked out trail or ski it with my touring setup. I was a little sketched out with the snow conditions and it being night at all, so I opted for the former. To be honest, I wasn't very optimistic about summiting, but a half hour into the hike it was looking pretty good.
Right past the trailhead I got a call from a friend inviting me out to a party for the night. I thought about it briefly and decided to go for the summit solo rather than spend the evening at some random party somewhere. Call me weird but I had my mind set on standing atop a 8300' peak 4000 feet above my city to ring in 2008.
I was all smiles for the first mile. A perfect snowshoe track made barebooting a breeze, and the trail's grade only forced me to kick a handful of steps in the snow. Conditions were perfect; there was no wind, it wasn't too cold, and the sky was a pristine black dotted with stars in all directions. I made good time up to a ridge at about 7500' and had my first glimpse of the Salt Lake Valley. Since it was only 11pm I figured I had underestimated myself again.
That is, until I continued on from there. The snowshoe track petered out and I was forced to follow a mountain goat track in my mountaineering boots. A quarter mile later I was panting through hip-deep snow along a mildly corniced ridgeline. The summit loomed a few hundred feet ahead so I plodded on, the hiking trail barely visible amidst the contours of the snow. By 11:30 I had reached the 'summit,' just to remember that it was just an intermediary peak and I still had another quarter mile and 600' to climb. I made a quick decision to continue on, but after trudging through waist-deep snow for about 100 yards I reneged. I would just have to make it back to the ridgeline by midnight.
A little bummed, I plunge-stepped through the snow back to the snowshoe track and made it minutes before midnight. Soon afterwards I heard little 'pops' from the valley and saw tiny dots of light, the fireworks being shot off from downtown. Happy New Year Salt Lake!
I motored back down to the trailhead in an hour and kept thinking of all those alpinists over the years, spending nights out halfway up remote, committing mountains in Alaska, Greenland, Pakistan, everywhere. The main difference: Partners. A little companionship and traded encouragement goes a long way towards maintaining a positive mental state and pushing the other to top performance. However, a quality solo adventure can be sublime.
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Posted by alalonde
Mon, 25 Sep 2006 06:45:00 GMT
So it looks like I'm at a monthly post ratio for this blog. Guess I don't have that much to say, but there's been plenty going on over the past month. Let's start from the beginning:
Aug. 25: Last day of coop, and last day of being a college student. Feels kinda strange writing that..
Aug. 26: Moved to my new place. I lucked out in catching a group of RIT students who were looking to rent a house in the city, around the Monroe Ave/Goodman St. area. Two of them are my age, and the other a couple years older. We all get along really well and share quite a few interests (drinking, sports, hiking/climbing, but mainly just drinking). The house is pretty big, it is three floors with an enormous loft on the third, spacious kitchen, and decks in the front and rear. We put in a pool table, couple of TVs, stereo system, and fish tank/coffee table, with a kegerator soon to be installed. The loft is thus far unfurnished, and will probably just be used for parties. And even though I am further from my job as before, it takes half the time to get there, thanks to I-490.
Aug. 28: Headed home. Thus began my two-week vacation. Anyone who knows me well knows that I will take full advantage of any large block of free time available due to its scarcity, and I did. At first I pretty much just relaxed, but soon grew bored of that.
Aug. 30: Headed to the High Peaks with the aim of conquering Mt. Colden. Colden was one of those peaks I hadn't climbed that John had already done, so I figured I'd knock it off in a day trip. I was up at 5 and summitted just before noon. Since it was early I cut over to the Van Hovenberg trail to Marcy and took one of the side trails up Tabletop. Colden was really nice, you can actually see all the way down to the tip of Avalanche Lake 3000 feet below. It was a beautiful day and I took quite a few pictures. The total hike was about 8 hours and 15 miles, with ample summit time. Suki accompanied me the whole way with sheer jubilation.
Sept. 1-3: moe.down. The 7th annual festival for Buffalo's premiere jam band was a blast. moe. played six rockin' sets throughout the weekend to a crowd of new age hippies dancing in the mud and rain. It was awesome. It was so muddy that they had people lined up outside the parking area to help push people's cars through the mud to the road. My front-wheel drive Acura Integra didn't handle it too well, and by the end of the weekend it resembled one of those Jeeps in their commercials. The elected mayor of moe.down: A sculpture of a squirrel humping a beer can. Frank Zappa won it last year, and he's dead, so I don't know which is stranger.
Sept. 5: Came to the conclusion that I had caught a cold, and attributed it to moe.down. Big surprise.
Sept. 7: Embarked on my three-day journey in the High Peaks. I had wanted to do a certain trip for quite some time, and couldn't get ahold of anyone free that weekend, so I went solo. That morning I got up at a decent hour, drove to the trailhead at Elk Lake, and was on the trail by one. It was supposed to be a beautiful few days, and the weather was clear by day, cool by night. Perfect. The nine miles into Panther Gorge went pretty quickly, considering the 30 pound pack on my back. Panther Gorge is a pretty awesome place, it is nestled between three of the four highest peaks in the state, and the lean-to there is new and really nice.
The next day I was up at 7 to do a pretty ambitious hike: The Great Range from Mt. Haystack to Gothics, then over to Sawteeth, then down to Upper Ausable Lake and back around to the Gorge. The climb up Haystack from Panther Gorge is pretty intense, something like a 1400' ascent in a mile. There was some pretty sweet scrambling near the top, especially when you avoid the marked trail for a more fun climb! I summitted by nine and was surprised to see somebody already up there, a kid from Schenectady. He was looking to do a Great Range traverse, so it was gonna be a long day for him, even longer than mine. The view was simply spectacular, easily the best I've found in the High Peaks. And that's saying something.
Next I headed over to Basin. It was another achingly steep climb, not quite as bad as Haystack but still draining. I stayed and took some pictures (attempted a self-portrait actually), soaking in the view. After 20 minutes or so I ventured off for Saddleback. Saddleba
ck has a notoriously steep trail on its western shoulder, and when I hit the bottom of the col between it and Basin, I didn't see how it was going to be possible to get up. There's a ladder at one point to get up a particularly tall cliff, but there's still a good 50-60 feet of scrambling just before the summit. It was deliciously fun. The "trail" is at right.
Right around the col between Saddleback and Gothics I started worrying about my water supply, since I was just about out and wouldn't encounter any until I got near Upper Ausable, which was two mountains away. So I pretty much ran up Gothics (a pretty sweet climb itself) and hung out for 45 minutes attending to a blister. Afterwards I headed up Sawteeth, which had a surprisingly nice view, especially of Basin, one of new favorite peaks. I will soon be posting plenty of pictures.
The hike down Sawteeth was pretty fun because the trail clearly didn't get much use, and was hardly eroded at all. I blasted down to the lake and filtered some water (not enough, I would soon discover). From then on, the hike pretty much sucked. There is some 1000' feet of climbing from the lake back up to Panther Gorge, and I was tired and sore and unhappy. At around six I made it back to camp, exhausted. I had hiked about 13 miles with over 15,000 feet of elevation change. Not your typical hike. After posting trail conditions at Views From the Top I received quite a few incredulous emails from people about the hike.
The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, I made it back to Elk Lake in just over 3.5 hours. Pretty much on cue, as soon as I had finished loading my stuff back into the car, it started raining, and pretty hard at that. Immaculate timing.
Sept 10: Headed back to the Roc.
Sept 11: Went back to work, this time as an "Independent Contractor" at Soleo. Since I've been back they've been keeping me pretty busy, which is also keeping me happy.
Since: Working during the week, partying on the weekends. Just the way it should be.
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