Wonderland Trail
Last week, with three friends, I did half of the Wonderland Trail, the trail around Mt. Rainier, from Ipsut Creek east to Box Canyon. Almost 40 miles, with about 11,000 feet of elevation gain and loss. I'll boil down 5 days of hiking and 400 photos to a half dozen photos.
Willis Wall from Mystic Lake at sunset:
Many-flowered Indian Pipe (Heather family, uncommon, unusual, but widespread):
"The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music."
Avalanche Lily (Lily family, normally seen within a week or two of snowmelt, uncommon to see day after day in August):
Why do humans gather together instead of spreading out? This gaggle consisted of hikers from three groups, and there were many other places nearby to get water and sit in the sun. The Ohanapecosh River is crashing through the gap between the rocks and the heather in the foreground. 
Meadows with wild flowers, blue skies, mountains, snow, rocks, glaciers, WOW!
posted by Pedicularis @ 11:52 AM
6 Comments:
Is that.. snow?
Why, yes it is! It was a heavy snow winter in Washington, so we hiking across a lot of snow. I used mini-crampons on one steep stretch. It would have been bad to fall there, but I mostly used them because I had carried them for 30 miles.
I know this is very Texan of me to say, but what is a mini-crampon?
4-point crampons. These are similar to mine (http://www.nwbackpack.com/products/ 4_point_crampon.php). The typical mountaining crampon is for climbing on ice, has 8 or 10 points, and is lashed onto the sole of the boot. These fit under the instep, and provide extra traction on steep and icy snowfields. One friend had Yak-Trax (see yaktrax.com), a rubber and steel contraption that works best on fresh snow.
That shot of Willis Wall is right up to Soto's standards!! Way to go!! :-)
Thanks. It was best of series (a technique I think he uses, too). Course, if you artsy types perused the 400 photos I took on that trip, you might pick out a completely different photo as your favorite.
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