New Years in Hamburg

text (and tracks?) to come

Christmas in Bad Lippspringe

some text to come?

Rigi North Ridge

We've done other stuff on the Rigi but this was our first trip up through the N face that we see so often from other parts of Switzerland. It's one of those faces that, from a distance, looks like there's no way through but, since it's in Switzerland, you just know that there's going to be a route. The snow that's up there may make things interesting today, but we've got ice axes with us and are wearing the big shoes, so we're ready for that.

After taking the train to Küssnacht we opt to walk the whole way up instead of taking the gondola. There's a quick (unplanned) diversion to the castle ruin at Gesslerburg (nice views!) and then we continue our way up, up, through the fields (see a couple of trail runners along here... this certainly would be a good trail for vertical) and then up, up some more through the woods until we hit the top of the gondola station at Seebodenalp. Here we start to see plenty of people who are also taking advantage of the decent weather and doing one of the standard hikes up the Rigi. We continue heading up, up and turn off the main trail above Holderen. Now through the woods, climbing more, a short snack break at Ronenboden (nice views!) and then more up, up, at times steeply, through the woods. At the Arschbagge we get into a bit of snow and start some scrambling, nicely secured with a cable (which is good because with the ice and wet that otherwise would have been pretty nerve wracking), and then up, up some more towards the Kulm. There's plenty of snow by now, but that just makes it easier to find the way up through the bands and wherever the scrambling gets particularly steep there's a chain. We've got nice views out over the lake

and can see up to the platform on the Kulm and the people up there. Up, up we go. There seem to be a couple of ways to do the last bit up to the Kulm itself.

The first one we try is a bit too scrambly and exposed for the conditions (and the cable, mysteriously, starts 3-4m above the ground), so we head more left and end up joining the very top of the red-white path that heads down the NE ridge. Up top we pack away the ice axes, enjoy the views for a bit, and then head down to the restaurant for lunch with a view (decadence!).

After lunch we head down to Weggis, at first on the trail next to the train tracks, then along the ridge to the view point at the Chänzeli before heading steeply down (with nice stairs and ladders) along the Geissrügge, down, down to Weggis, where we catch a boat (always nice) to Luzern.

This is a nice route that would also be a good early-season training tour (snow permitting).

Track:
Stats: 19.3km, ~1400m up and down

Walenstock trilogy

The forecast called for a lovely day, so off we went to the mountains. :-)
The train from Luzern to Engelberg was full, the bus from Wolfenschiessen to Oberrickenbach was standing-room only, and there was a wait to get the gondola up to Bannalp (the smaller gondola to the lake wasn't running yet), ah well. Last time we were in the area we walked up from here, but that's not the plan for today. 

From the gondola station we follow the trail and contour around above the lake, enjoying the view up towards the Walenstock peaks where we're headed and making our way through the people (there are plenty of people out and about today). At p1788 we leave the masses behind and follow the use trail gently up. When the Wiss Tritt comes into view we turn up the scree field and climb steeply up to the shoulder. There are no other hikers up here, but we do see a group of chamoix above us, fortunately moving away and not kicking rocks down on us. The Wiss Tritt looks like one of those things you could never get through without a rope, but following the markings up through a mix of steep grass (we've brought the ice axes with us, and they are certainly useful) and scrambling get us over it without significant problems. At the top of the step we take a quick food break to enjoy the views back and then set out across the Sätteliteufi, following the logical line and a few cairns. This is an absolutely fantastic landscape of limestone surrounded by high walls. Wild and beautiful.

At the "Cabane Philippe Morel" (a bivac shelter apparently intended for use by speleologists), we turn off to the right (that's the 90 degree turn in the track) and head up the logical route to the Tschudi. On the way up we see a few people on top of the Grosser Walenstock and more on top of the Rigidalstock (this is the top of a klettersteig). Up up we go until hitting the ridge between the Tschudi and the Grosser Walenstock. A quick detour to the peak of the Tschudi itself and then back along the ridge and up the last few meters to the Grosser Walenstock. On the way up a group is leaving and by the time we get to the peak there's only one other person up here (a paraglider who has hiked up and is enjoying a break before starting his flight down).

After another food break and plenty of enjoying of the views - we can see loads of hikes/climbs that we've done from here (including an unusual angle of the Gross Spannort) - we head along the SW ridge (nice exposed scrambling on this) to the fork, and then down, down towards the Kleiner Walenstock. Down to the saddle at p2334, then up to the peak itself, more view appreciation, and then back to the saddle and the way down.

The route takes us down through the screen into a bowl, then left to the obvious cut and then down, down, at times on uncomfortably loose footing (yay for the ice axes!), at times off to the right in the steps and grass, down, down, until we hit the grass slope at the bottom and cross to the hiking path. Looking back up, this is definitely one of those "doesn't look like there's any way through that" descents. :-)

Now we follow the path down to the small gondola at Brunniswald, with a food break in the sun along the way to enjoy the last of the peace and quiet. The gondola takes us down to Grafenort (we came out here after the Nünalphorn tour years ago and the Arvigrat tour more recently) and the first of the standing-room only trains that will take us back home.

Another really, really nice tour through some wild landscapes.

Track:
Stats: ~13.5km, 1230m up, 1640m down

Climbing near the Weissmieshuette

This weekend we headed down to the Saastal for a couple days of climbing around the Weissmieshütte.

After the long (and full!) train and bus ride to Saas Grund, we grabbed the gondola up to Kreuzboden and then hiked the rest of the way up to the hut. This whole process actually ends up taking a lot less time that it seemed like it should: we were at the hut by around 10. Once there we check in, have hot beverages on the terrace while enjoying the views, drop off some stuff we don't need during the day and hear from the Roberto (the Huttenwart) that it's definitely not too late to do one of the multi-pitch routes up to the Jegihorn. Yay! We'd been thinking we needed to do something short and/or cragging today. Some quick looking at topos to pick a route, and then we set off towards the base of the Jegihorn.

The well-marked route leads us along and up, up, up. At some point we turn off and traverse to the foot of the route Panorama (easy to find because of the broad crack it follows). On with the gear and then we start the climbing. This is nice climbing on great rock (what a contrast to the Ortstock tour!) with excellent views and good protection. Pure fun in the sun! The 10 pitches, mostly 4b or 4c but with a couple of 5as tossed in, take us about 3.5 hours (including a food break in the middle). Once up top we take up the rope, change shoes and walk the last bit along the ridge to the peak. We take another break to enjoy the views and then set off down the blue-white marked descent route back to the hut. At the hut we enjoy a cool beverage in the sun and then head in to do some planning for the next day and dinner. After a nice meal we talk about plans for the next day with Roberto, who shows us an updated topo for the route we're planning and talks us through the route. Well prepared for the next day, we head off to bed.

Sunday starts with breakfast at 6 and we're underway shortly before 7. We start off, in the dark (fun seeing the headlamps from the people doing Hochtouren in the distance), back up the valley and along the moraine to the talus field at the end. We make our way through this, heading up the whole way, occasionally happening upon traces of other people doing this, until we make it to the foot of the ridge coming down from the Gendarme.
We're surprised to see another group already in the route; they're already a couple of pitches ahead, so it's not like it's going to be crowded, but it had seemed likely that we'd have the mountain to ourselves. Ah well. On with the gear and we start the climbing. The route is super varied: starting on a slabby ridge, then getting more vertical and 3D. It's also very sparingly protected, so we end up supplementing the few bolts and pitons that are there with friends as we go (the belays are all bolted though). The climbing isn't particularly hard (mostly 4s) but it is at times quite exposed (including a particularly "entertaining" traverse), .

...and the lack of bolts means that we need to pay attention to route finding... it's great that we have a picture of the newer topo and Roberto's beta about the route! All in all very fun climbing throughout on good rock (though the sun spends most of the time behind clouds, so it's a bit chilly for a lot of the climb)... and we're up top before we know it. Climbing time: 3 hours with breaks. At the top there's room for the two of us to sit (straddling the ridge) but not for much else, so we have a very short break before abseiling down the other side. We'd thought about continuing along the ridge towards the Fletschhorn for a bit, but decide that looks a bit more technical than we currently want to do, so we opt for the newly re-bolted abseil route instead. The abseiling goes well (and reasonably quickly) and we continue the rest of the way down on foot after packing the gear away and having another quick food break. Down down we go, following the obvious trail, until we get back to the bottom of the ridge where we started climbing. From here it's a more efficient trip through the talus back to the moraine and then back to the hut. After a break with cool beverages, pie, and strudel (!), we head down to the gondola and the bus back home to Basel.

This was two very good days of multi-pitch climbing on great rock. A great weekend!

Doing the Ortstock east ridge

Based on the forecast and the fact that greg got back late Friday night from a work trip, we decided for a lazy Saturday and a long(ish) Sunday this weekend. So Saturday afternoon we went to Braunwald and then Sunday we did the East ridge of the Ortstock. Nine years ago we were also on the Ortstock as part of a tour from Braunwald to the Glattalphütte, somehow that blog post never made it out of the "text coming stage"... tja. That time we came up via the hiking route from the Furggele, this time we wanted to take a more adventurous route up.

Saturday was the expected laziness: a slow morning, a later train, and then a stroll around Braunwald before checking into the hotel/hostel. The weather isn't great, but the forecast for the next day is good, so we go to bed optimistic.

Sunday starts reasonably late (it's not a mountain hut, so breakfast doesn't start super early) under cloudless blue skies and great views of the Ortstock. and it's East ridge.

We start the same way as last time: heading out of town and up, up, through the woods to the hanging valley. Across the valley and then up the end towards the Bärentritt. Here we pass the first other group of people we've seen (big packs... maybe they are also planning some climbing?). The route through the Bärentritt is nice, but certainly less dramatic than we remember (we've come a long way in the last decade), and we're up top before you know it.

Now we're moving into terra incognita. We've got a couple of descriptions from hikr and one from the SAC tourenportal, so we're pretty sure we know what to do. After a short food break we leave the path and head cross-country towards the ridge.

This starts off pretty flat, but then turns into steeper grass. After crossing a small patch of scree we start to enter a more exposed section at around 2100m (this is easily visible on the map), always heading up up. As this steepens a bit more the ice axes come out (they work sooooo well on steep grass!) and we continue up, up into the T6 part of the program. At some point we start seeing yellow/orange dots marking the way (cool! no more concern about being on the right route); these lead us ever upwards, sometimes with pretty dodgy, steeply up, up until we hit the saddle in the ridge.

Here we take another food break and put on the climbing gear (Andrea's attempt to toss her harness down the mountain is, fortunately, unsuccessful). Then we hit the rock and start climbing. The first bit of this is actual climbing (4a according to the tourenportal, but who knows...) on decent rock with a few bolts along the way. Andrea leads this and greg follows. It's soooo odd to be climbing/scrambling on limestone after all the granite in the Sierras!. Thanks to the markings and the occasional bolt, staying on route is straightforward, which is good since the rock in the scrambling sections of the route isn't what one might hope and it quickly becomes outright dangerous if you deviate (something greg discovered at one point, leading to one big rock dislodged and a big burst of adrenalin). There generally tends to be something around that the rope can be attached to. The classification of this in the tourenportal as a hochtour and not alpine climbing makes perfect sense: aside from that first pitch, this has much more in common with standard mountaineering ridge route than rock climbing.

After a couple of hours of this we're on a peak. At the time we think this is the Vorder Ortstock, but doubts emerge later and, after looking at the track, we end up being pretty sure that it was actually one of the other spires on the ridge. Still, that's where the markings led us. Everything we've read recommends not continuing along the ridge from this point (the rock is bad and it's extremely exposed), so we follow the markings into the North face and further onwards towards the Ortstock. There are a couple of small snow fields here that we cross at the top (easy) and then a larger one towards the end that we also cross at the top. This one's less easy due the amount of loose crap on top of the ice/rock, but we make it through. Then it's onwards, always staying next to the rock and following the dots until we emerge on the Ortstock itself.

This is one of those routes and peaks where you can emerge from nowhere into a crowd of hikers (always fun!), but we're late enough that there's only one person on the peak, so we don't get to have that bit of fun. Ah well, it's also nice to have the peak mostly to ourselves. :-)

After another snack break and packing the technical gear away and another snack break we head down the hiking path to the saddle between the Ortstock and the Höch Turm (there's supposedly an mountaineering route up that one too... worth considering for a future trip!), then down, down, through the Bärentritt and back down, down, down to Braunwald and the beginning of the trip home.

This was an interesting tour that, despite the low altitude, definitely deserves the ZS rating and requires some concentration. It sure would be nice if the rock was better throughout, but you take what you get. :-)


Track:
Stats: 14.3km, ~1650m up and down

Tomlishorn and Widderfeld

More or less exactly a year ago we did a nice T5 trilogy on the Pilatus and, along the way, went up the Tomlishorn. In discussing that tour we found a hikr report about doing a T5 tour up the Southwest ridge of the Tomlishorn that sounded fun. Today we did that tour along with a bit of extra fun that Andrea found.

We start with the train to Alpnachstad and then start hiking through town and then up, up along road, forest road, and hiking path. Up, up, through the trees, through the gorge that's not really a gorge near Tiergarten, and then up some more until taking the first break near Polentablätz. We're on our own through all this and everything nice and quiet. Fun to be doing all this vertical with light packs and below 2000m! :-) Coming into the open below Fräkmünt we get our first good view of the ridge. Looks good! The ridge to the Matthorn, to our right, also looks good; going to have to come back and do that one too. Onwards past the picnic area, where we see the first people of the day, and then up, up a bit more to the alp at Tumli.

Here we leave the path and scramble up to the ridge and the bench that's directly above the alp. Nice food break here enjoying the views and quiet and then we continue along the ridge.

There's some easy and fun scrambling in this interspersed with nice walking and great views, always heading up, up, up. Someone is playing an alphorn in the area, so we've got a bit of musical accompaniment (yeah! back in Switzerland!). Towards the top, as the ridge broadens out and gets gentle, we catch up with a group of five who had clearly also just finished the ridge. We also walk past the guy who's playing the alphorn and continue up to the normal hiking path for the last bit to the Tomlishorn.

Now we're in the masses you expect on a peak like this on a lovely fall Sunday. There's barely room to stand on the peak itself.

After a short stay at the peak, we continue on our way along the ridge towards the Widderfeld (we last did this with Kristen ten years ago). Instead of following the path along the right of the Widderfeld, we turn off to the left and follow a use trail (later marked with blue stripes) that continues under the cliffs of the Widderfeld. Here we're alone again. :-)

The path takes us to a tunnel with stairs that take us up through the cliff and to the steep grass on the other side. Here we follow the use trail/markings until topping out on the trail down from the Widderfeld. We continue to the top and enjoy another food break and views across the madness on the Tomlishorn (we're alone up here). Supposedly there's an interesting direct route down from there, but we don't manage to find it, so after the break we continue along the path down the ridge, past a *really* nice bivvy spot (lacking water, but that's probably solvable) to the saddle between the Widderfeld and the Mittaggüpfi (11 years since we were last there), and then down, down, down. At Lütholdsmatt we stop for cool beverages and then continue the rest of the way down, down, down to Alpnach Dorf, where we start the trip home on trains that are as full as one would expect on a lovely September Sunday.

This was a nice long tour that's not particularly technically challenging. Since it's South-facing it might be a good one to add to the list of possible early-season training tours.

Amusing aside: two weeks after doing this tour, we found a very similar tour on the list of new tours added to the SAC tourenportal (though that one is a lot shorter since they start from the Schybach parking lot).

Track:
Stats: 23.7km, about 2000m up and down.

Climbing in the Sierras: Mt. Emerson South East Face

yet to come

Climbing in the Sierras: Mt. Whitney East Buttress

yet to come

Climbing in the Sierras: Crystal Crag's East Arete and Ridge Traverse

After a rest day (and some laundry!) we're both feeling fresh and fit. We get an early start and drive from Bishop to Mammoth Lakes to meet our guide L. After having a coffee we pile into the car for the short drive to the trail head at Lake George. Now along the same path we followed five years ago when we hiked up to the ridge here (no blog post for the hike, unfortunately). Up and up and then turning off from that path towards Crystal Lake and then off on a use path that leads us to Crystal Crag and to the foot of the route up the East Arete.

On with the climbing gear and some more clothes (we are in the shade and it is cold). After a quick discussion of rope signals we start the climbing. This is all done with L leading and then the two of us following (on separate ropes with the last clearing all the gear). At each belay we repeat the process. It's still quite cold, so it's nice that we can climb in the big boots and that the climbing isn't too difficult (not much feeling in the fingertips for subtle holds!). Great rock, fun climbing. At some point we hit a pitch of pure white quartz crystals. Amazing!

Eventually we hit the ridge, the sun, and the first summit, and then continue on a single rope with a mix of down climbing, scrambling, and ridge following until we hit the second summit. Needless to say we got nice views from the ridge and the summits, but we aren't too sad to start down-climbing to get out of the wind. A bit of good down-climbing on the rope (good that we practice this!), and then a walk down to the bottom. Off with the gear, back to town, goodbye to L, lunch, then the drive back to Bishop.

Amusing side story throughout the day: it's cold when not climbing in th sun. L. Mentions the possibility of changing our plans for our two-day trip to do a route that has morning sun. We discuss this while she's climbing and decide, emphatically, yes!. At the next belay, as we get ready to mention this, L gets a text from the office telling her that the trailhead we were planning on using is closed due to a fire, so we'd need to change anyway. L mentions that Mt. Whitney has a great climb for cooler days since the East wall get sun early. We were just there and know how fantastic that wall is, so we agree that it'd be great to climb there if a permit is available. This seems unlikely, but L asks the office to check, says she'll think about other options, and climbs on. At the next belay L gets the text that we have permits and that we're going to climb Whitney as a plan B. :-)

No track for this one.

Backpacking in the Southern Sierras: Upper Boyscout Lake to Whitney Portal

The last day is always tricky, this was no exception. :-)

We are in no hurry, so we do a bit of a morning walk and aren't packed and underway until shortly past 9. The route down isn't 100% obvious (lots of cairns and potential paths) and we don't have a description, so we just pick a likely looking path and, with a comment of "I really don't feel like doing an hour of bushwhacking" from greg, start down. And thus begins an hour or so of bushwhacking... this is definitely type 2 fun for greg, but there are some funny pictures.

We eventually find our way down to Lower Boy Scout Lake and continue the route down, along a not particularly inspiring, but at least mostly easy to follow trail. Which, after a while, vanishes. Shit. Luckily Andrea remembers reading something about ledges. So we head up a bit again and re-find the path following a set of ledges in the granite walls. Luckily for us we come across a group heading up (two guides with five clients) when nearing one of the less obvious turns and get to wait a bit while the guides shuttle a couple of guests across an exposed bit. Onwards and downwards, losing the trail again at a river crossing, realizing our mistake later, coming back up, and more descending.

Down, down. Meeting the trail coming from Whitney - plenty of wiped out looking hikers on their way down after this point - down down to the portal and the shop. Cool beverages there and then along to our car (still there! still with a live battery!) for the drive down to Lone Pine and "civilization".

Track:

Stats: 6km, 110m up, 1020m down

Backpacking in the Southern Sierras: Wallace Lake to Upper Boyscout Lake

Normal start time under a cloudless skies. We start up the side of the valley, retracing the beginning of the walk to Wales Lake yesterday. It's warmer than expected and the walking is very good. After crossing over to the cool marsh area below the head wall we move to the obvious weak spot and have a really nice talus scramble to the top. Really nice. Up top we do a short break and then move on across the lovely hanging valley that leads to Tulainyo Lake. The valley is pretty long, so this takes a while and anticipation for the lake and the first views of the head wall to the col builds.

The lake is spectacular, like a caldera but filled with water and surrounded by cliffs. There's still ice on the lake and snowfields around the edges. The wall to the col is impressive! It's one of those "if we didn't know it's possible it wouldn't ever cross our minds to try" things. We have a another break surveying the situation and then cross the snowfield to the talus below the col. After some water pumping on the other side of a huge cloud of young mosquitoes we start heading up.

The first 1/2-2/3 is more fun talus, with some bigger bits up top that are somewhat scrambly. Good warm-up for the wall itself. We start near the obvious point in the middle and then just follow a sensible route to the top. It's easy scrambling, intentionally made a bit more challenging at times by route choice, and we're at the top with big smiles on our faces. That was fun! And it's nice to know that it was doable (the alternative would have been complicated and several days long...).

Another break and quick discussion of what to do next. Given that the weather is still perfect, it's pretty clear to both of us that we're going to do the East ridge to Mt Russell - we've read a lot about it and the ridge looks great. We pack stuff into hip packs, set ourselves a sensible turnaround time, and then set off. I could spend multiple pages on the ridge, but I won't. It was really, really good. We spent much of the route out to Russell on the ridge (more exposed and scrambly) and then did the easier lower route to return. The rock was mostly great, the views were fantastic, and the exposure was huge. Again, a really fun scramble.

Back at the packs with even bigger smiles on our faces, we repack and then head down to Upper Boy Scout Lake. The first part of the steep bit here is kind of shitty because there are too many different paths that people have taken (insert ranting from greg here), but after that things consolidate to one path and the descent is pretty easy. The ascent, on the other hand, would suck (you have to earn that nice ridge hike!). We find the turnoff to the lake and descend easily. At the lake we look for camping spots and end up not too far from the other two guys here (the spot we picked is nice). Have a snack (we're learning!), pitch the tent, pump some water and wash a bit, then laze around until dinner time.

The lake and spot are beautiful, but it's damn windy... may be a long night despite the wall we build on the windward side of the tent. Let's see how it goes.

This was a great day with perfect weather. Lots of good scrambling too... just right for us!

Dinner: black bean soup. Tasty!

Track:

Stats: 10.5km, 960m up and down.

Backpacking in the Southern Sierras: Wright Lake Basin to Wallace Lake

Underway beneath a mostly cloudless sky shortly before 7:30. It's cold this morning! We are sure that's a good sign. Start by heading through lots of really wet grass along the long, lovely Wright Lake Basin. Follow this quite a while before reaching the bend in the stream signalling that we should cross and head cross-country over a slight ridge towards Wallace Creek.

Nice break in the woods on the other side of that ridge and then we continue with some very nice forest walking along the valley, heading down to the creek. Shortly before hitting the creek we cross the old path up the valley, which we turn onto and follow up, slowly up, through the woods. This is nice walking! At some point the path vanishes and we do the rest on our own. Encounter a footstep at a marshy area (first sign of other people today). Have a nice break at another marshy area, lots of fun walking and path finding. As we near the top of the valley we re-run into the trail and start following that again. After not too long the trail ends at a creek. We look around a bit, fail to find any stones across, and do a barefoot creek crossing. Yeah! Fun fun! :-)

Further along the path, across a high stony plain until the lake comes into view. We ditch the packs near a very bold marmot and start looking for the campsite. We also see another hiker getting ready to do some fishing. We find a good campsite, pitch the tent (several attempts required due to hard ground... flaring tempers due to hunger... note to selves: snack before pitching the tent if the weather allows). Quick chat with the fisherman (who ended up in the wrong valley but is making the most of it for an hour or so before trying to get back on-route). Snack by the tent, water pumping, washing, a quick (very quick) swim for greg that almost didn't happen, but luckily the sun came out at just the right moment.

Walk up to Wales Lake, allowing a reco of the first bits of tomorrow, and then a truly stunning lake theater with crazy vertical stone walls (and much less talus than normal) all around. Maybe some weather coming, so we hurry down to the tent and do a quick cup of tea/coffee, ready to run for the tent at the first drop, but everything behaves, it stays nice, and we get to enjoy our beverages outside. Greg moves into the shade of a convenient rock to read and Andrea goes for a stroll. We do dinner in the sun and another quick bit of water pumping, say hi to the two new fisherman who have shown up and are planning on staying the night, and then head back to the tent. Quick stroll, chocolate, blog writing, bed!

This was our first entire day without rain! Wow! Let's see what happens tonight.

Dinner: Black Bart Chili, downright edible!

Track:

Stats: 10.3km, 300m up, 280m down.

Backpacking in the Southern Sierras: Meadow above the Pothole to Wright Lakes Basin

Normal efficient morning and we are underway by 7:30. We pump a liter of water and then head onwards and upwards to traverse some talus to meet the trail to Shepherd Pass without going all the way down into the Pothole. After the loose talus, the nice patch is a real treat. The route up through the pass, with its big snowfield, still isn't clear, which is a "fun" piece to all of this.
It starts to sprinkle, we cover the packs and break out the hard shells, and continue. Along the way we see switchbacks up through what otherwise seems to be an unpleasant chute to the right of the snow, which answers the questions of how one gets through the pass. Yeah! No dealing with steep snow today!

The rain gets harder and harder. Greg has spotted what looks like a sheltering group of rocks (leaning against each other with space underneath), so we head over there. Andrea crawls into the crack, we shove packs wherever they will go, and greg crams as much of himself as possible into the crack. The waiting begins... It rains, it starts to drip under our shelter, maybe it's raining less, maybe not, greg is antsy, Andrea is calm, it drips more, maybe it's raining less, maybe not. After about 15 minutes of this it really stops raining and we continue on our way.

The switch-backed path up to the pass is very nicely made through some dodgy terrain and cleverly avoids the snow patch. Something has eaten at least one deer on this slope because there are bones and bits all over the place. We come out up top, enjoy the last of the views back, and then move on 'til we can see down the very broad valley in front of us. Time for a snack break, but it's windy and threatening rain (the top of Mt. Tyndell, and much of the ridge is in clouds), so we make it quick and continue on. Past a couple disgruntled backpackers on their way out and onward. At some point we leave the trail and start traversing the slope that leads up to the saddle over to the Wright Lakes Basin. We see a third hiker down on the path. It's great to walk along this level, broad high valley! Once close to the slop up to the saddle we plan a route and then start up through the talus. The actual conditions blow the plan up more or less immediately: there's a nice easy weak spot that we can follow up, up the slope until it hits a switch-backed path coming more directly from the main trail far below. We follow this to rest of the way to the broad saddle. 

We say goodbye to the valley and head across to say hello to the Wright Lakes Basin. Time for another snack break, which we end up doing huddled behind a rock to get out of the wind (tja... views...). We discuss and reject the idea of continuing along the ridge to its end and then descending into the basin and choose instead to just head directly down. On the way down we pass two other backpackers somewhat confusedly making their way up.

Down, down. The basin really is pretty: cool dead pines, nice views, dark dark clouds heading our way (again). We scout around a bit, find a campsite, pitch the tent, toss the stuff in it, and the sun comes out. WTF? We go pump some water, have another snack, and then set off for a stroll up the side valley between Tyndell and Barnard peaks Lovely walk up the moraine with cool vegetation and impressive granite walls and dark, dark clouds. We formulate a plan involving heading up onto a bit of a ridge and the thunder starts more or less immediately thereafter. So much for that plan. We turn back and take an alternate way past a couple of other really nice lakes. The thunder is getting worse, the clouds look evil, the wind picks up, we pick up the pace. We get back to the tent about five minutes before the hail starts. Yeah! The rest of the afternoon passes with us occasionally leaving the tent to enjoy the views and gawk at the approaching threatening clouds; it's somehow all quite entertaining. The tent mostly behaves.

At around 17:00 there's a larger break in the hostilities and we move around a bit outside. The wind has changed direction... that's got to signal a change in the weather... good sign! Around 17:45 we realize that the clouds heading our way from the new direction no longer look so innocent, so we quickly make dinner and enjoy a very cool cloud show on Mt. Barnard while waiting for the pasta to cook, then eat quickly and (mostly) tidy up really quickly to avoid getting soaked by the now dark clouds blowing our way. Retreat to the tent, write some blog, listen to some thunder, and we'll see if we get out of the tent again today.

The weather was particularly weird today because this is the first day that it has rained in the morning and the first day that it's rained much after 17:00. Let's see what the rest of the evening and the morning brings. Andrea is being an optimist: "it's all a good sign!"
Dinner: Pasta with spicy sausage. Meh... not as good as the last two nights (and that's not just because we were eating really fast).

Track (includes both the hike and the afternoon walk):

Stats:9.1km, about 450m up and down. Then ~3km with 150m up and down for the afternoon walk.