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It all began on Thursday when my boss told me I had Friday off,four day weekend nice. I got off work went home packed my gear and hiked up to half moon pass so I could have all of Friday to summit and explore. I reached the top around dusk, found a perfect little spot to camp, set up shop ate some food and took in the view.
It was a gorgeous clear night with perfect weather and millions of stars. I laid in my sleeping bag watching gazing at the sky and before I knew it I was snoring. Something about that fresh cool air.
6:00 am Friday I wake up to
I lounged in the comfort of my favorite bag that I've had for years and took a few more pictures of the sunrise.
After awhile I got my mind right and was ready for some breakfast. I smashed a couple bagels and peanut butter and drank a bunch of water. I packed a day pack with all the essentials and hit the trail around 6:45. .
I tend to put my head down and hit cruise control and once I crossed the creek and started the ascent it was all business.
I stopped when I got my first glimpse of the summit through the trees.
This little guy was making quite a racket and he finally slowed down to munch on some grass and I snagged this pic.
Where the boulders begin, keep your eye on the prize.
9:05 GREAT SUCCESS!!!
I reached the summit from the top of Half moon pass in just under 2.5hrs. I walked around and snagged this pic of the bowl of tears.
Unfortunately I don't have a professional camera and didn't come out
with a 360 degree panorama as displayed on this site. I did get a few decent shots here's one of the Gore.
I was lucky enough to be able to hang out on the summit and eat lunch for about and hour and a half before I started hearing voices coming up . Soon enough there were about 10 people on the summit and 10 more closing in. I figured I had my peace long enough and started making my way down. I really would have liked to take the Halo ridge down, but I had left my pack at the campsite and decided I would get creative and make my way down to the bowl of tears and Lake Patricia and explore.
After the initial descent summit I hung a right down a couloir figuring this would be the most direct route to the two lakes.
Looking Down
This proved to be challenging and exciting as every step had to be calculated to avoid becoming one with a rock slide.
Here you can see the elusive columbine growing out of a rock.
Here is a view looking up the couloir
I've always enjoyed photographing Lichen not sure why exactly
There were a whole lot of spider webs throughout the boulder field leading down to meadow. In most of the webs the spider was sitting right in the middle, and as I approached they would start shaking the web quite violently.
On the far right of this pic you can see the cornice on the N. ridge. I came down just to the left of it.
After my somewhat nerve wracking descent I started heading for the bowl of tears. Upon arrival I was glad that I had made the effort to check it out up close and personal.
There were some good size trout swimming around right on the edge. Without zooming in it's hard to see, but they looked like rainbows to me.
After taking a little dip in the crystal clear and COLD water I tied my boots up and started heading downstream to Lake Patricia.
Here is a great view of the summit and the North Ridge.
All the creeks provided so many photo opps along the way I wish I could share them all
Lake Patricia was beautiful, big surprise. I even came across two gentleman who were getting ready to do some fly fishing.
I made my way around the left side of Patricia and then crossed over the streams to begin my traverse back to the dreaded trail back up half moon pass. I figured I would try and traverse as high as I could along the base of Notch mtn. and save myself some vert and meet up with the trail eventually. Not sure if this was the best idea as some sections were quite steep and required some minor climbing to get down, wouldn't have been such a big deal if I wasn't alone and way off trail.
I made it back to the trail cruised up grabbed my pack and starting making my way back to my truck as by this time I was getting hungry. I didn't plan on spending so much time exploring and had no more food. Got back to my truck around 5:30 and headed straight to my buddies house for some bbq.
All in all this was a great hike loved every minute of it. Fortunately I had great weather to camp in and hike in the next day. I can't wait to step it up and take on some more challenging peaks.
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
Wow- I‘m loving the pictures. I really enjoyed Holy Cross, but I seem to get one or two really great pictures per climb. You have enough here to make your own calandar.
Nice pictures, unique descent (be careful though) - I've never seen the bowl, patricia, and the summit from the bottom - interesting views. Great job!
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