Fortunately, as the morning wore on, the fog burned off a bit:
When I reached the base of the climb, I turned back to see from whence I came:
After scrambling up to the first plateau (all the while wondering how the heck I was going to ever climb down), I again turned back to see what my progress looked like:
Looming ahead, the Continental Divide (and storm clouds):
For a while now, I had been suspecting that my topo maps were not giving me the full picture, or at least enough picture for me to really plot out intelligent hiking paths. This mountain in front of me looked, on the topo map, like a series of happy concentric ovals that I could hop over and continue merrily along my way. It also was the happiest of the ones in my path, meaning it would be the easiest one to climb over.
Gulp.
I did manage to find a rocky, snowy stream pass which looked like the easiest way to ascend:
Don't look back if you're afraid of heights:
I finally did reach the top, then I dropped my pack on the Continental Divide and scrambled up an even higher peak in hopes of getting the best view. And the best view was got.
But I'll save those pics for the next update.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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