Enchantments Ski Traverse

A ski traverse in november? It’s a pretty bold idea but with La Nina blessing the cascades with a great start to the season, it started sounding reasonable. After some pow days at baker and in the north cascades, I was stoked to continue getting out. Emily was in between jobs with the forest service and ski patrol, and I had an upcoming fall break so we made plans to get some shredding in during thanksgiving week. And luckily enough, the weather gods blessed us. As my break began, a high pressure window came over the cascades.

After persuading Emily that repeating volcanoes was lame, I convinced her on an stuart range ski traverse. It would ideally link up lil Annapurna, Dtail, Argonaut, and Stuart. Emily was told that the south faces wouldn’t go but we had a stoke. Emily dragged along her friend Silvian and we made plans to drop off a car as close to Esmeralda TH Tuesday morning and set off. I didn’t have a 0 degree bag so I resolved to sew one in time. After a busy weekend, I got out for a quick source lake scouting mission on Monday. I got back at 4pm with all my sleeping bag materials delivered. Needless to say it was a long night and at 1am on Tuesday, I was power-resting for the coming trip. 

4am came quickly and I drove over the pass to meet Emily and Silvian where we dropped her car off 6 miles from esmeralda TH. By 08:30, we were walking out of Snow creek. There was a decent amount of snow on the ground but there were still a fair amount of rocks poking through so we kept skis on our backs for an hour. Once we reached the top of the switchbacks, we put skins on and started our journey. Prior, me and Emily had only been as far as the snow-creek wall so from here out it was new terrain to me.

Snow creek was a beautiful endless valley with peaks towering on each side. As we cruised up the valley, the snow depth kept increasing and skiable couloirs caught the eye on each side. Travel was easy with an obvious trail through the woods and a minimal slide alder or bushwack. Benefits of one of the most well traveled trails in the state I guess. The skinning was spiced up every once in a while by random bare spots. By the time we got into the woods, most of the animal tracks had disappeared.

The first lake we hit was Nada Lake, at about 1:30. The lake was all frozen over so we enjoyed our first bits of sunshine as we skinned across it. We joined back along the trail to skin up to lower snow lake, where we finally got our first views of the enchantments at 2:30. Surprisingly, lower snow lake was completely frozen over while the upper snow-lake was snow-free. From here it was only 2.5 miles and 1500’ of gain to lake Vivian so we assumed we’d arrive at camp right at sunset.

Well we didn’t arrive at camp at sunset and it ended up being quite a night. Skinning around upper snow lake was fine- though obviously not as fast as just cutting across the lake. The true challenge came once we started up the forest towards lake Vivian. From here, the summer trail was impossible to follow and we gave into a life of steep, bushwack skinning. Progress was extremely slow and by sunset at 4:30, we were only 500’ up. Given it was still early, we decided to continue on, hoping conditions would improve. Sadly they didn’t. By 6:30, we were 300’ from the lake. We continued but ended up too far right. We found ourselves on top of a steep face so instead of trying to navigate it in the dark, we set up our tent on the knoll between Lake Vivian and Temple Lake at 7:00.

For the trip, we brought along Silvians new MSR Front Range. It was our first time pitching a pyramid tent so the first night was, well... rough. Firstly we made the mistake of not digging the tent below snowline which let tons of wind and snow in. We also didn’t dig in the inside, meaning the edges were unusable since they were too low. And most importantly, we fucked up the side where our heads lied, meaning a lot of snow came in from that side. A lot. The night was rough, with me and emily booting up at 1 am to add snow to cover the edges. After this the wind picked up and though our efforts worked on some sides, the side with our head was still messed up. And thus began the 7 hours of suffering.

We were in and out all night. Whenever I looked up, I felt snow sprinkling onto my face. I conceded to using a jacket hood to cover my head as I slept since my sleeping bag was hoodless. At 7am when I woke up, there was a solid inch or two of snow on my pad around my face and on my hood. We were happy to get going and by 7:45 we were moving, quickly getting down to the lake. From here we skinned across the core zone, strong gusts blasting us. As we neared little annapurna, the wind at the summit was obvious but we decided to just keep going. Skinning up it was efficient until about 100’ below the summit where we decided to transition behind some rocks. A little booting later and we were at the top at 11:15. 

From the top, we quickly started our way down to escape the winds. We skied strong windboard but it turned into powder as we neared Isolation lake, arriving at 11:30. From here it was our plan to climb the summer route up dragontail peak, only 1000’ of vertical away. Me and Silvian both believed we could climb through the cornice but with Emily wary, we couldn’t convince her and decided to ski down asgard pass. The snow was beautiful down to the lake and from here we decided to skin up to colchuck col to at least have a look at the south side. 2.5 hours later we were at banshee pass, but the sun was going down.

Deciding that the traverse was out of question, we decided to ski down to the lake and set up a nice camp. We triggered a small wind slab at the top of the colchuck glacier but other than that, the skiing was amazing. This time we digged out a great campsite by the lake and the only issue we faced was the wet sleeping bags from the night before.

The next morning, we chose against another lap of the colchuck glacier and made our way out. Everything was pretty straightforward and we were in leavenworth by 2pm to learn of all the restaurants being closed for thanksgiving. It was a great ski traverse and I hope to come back in spring. Next time I'll start from stuart lake and hopefully be much more successful.

MYOG #2 - 20/40 sleeping bag

   After modding that sleeping pad, I was feeling inspired to do more make your own gear projects. I had been looking into an ultralight summer-weight sleep system for a while already and it was obvious what to make; a sleeping bag. Out of the gate I set my values of weight, warmth, and efficiency. From these three principles I set about designing the lightest summer-weight bag possible. During my research I came across the Feathered Friends Vireo UL, and thats where I took a lot of my inspiration.

To save weight on my bag, I removed the zipper and taking inspiration from the patagonia hybrid half-bag, I designed the bottom to be warmer so that the top could be used with a jacket. This intentional layering inside the bag meant I also gave it a slightly wide shoulder. Since my jackets have hoods, I also used this as an opportunity to remove the hood of the bag, especially since the bag is only designed for relatively mild temperatures. There are a lot of features one can add to a bag but I forgo most. After I use the bag for a few nights, I’ll decide if I want to add a draft collar.

As far as materials, I used a 7 denier calendered nylon inner fabric and a 10 denier outer. I used 850 fill power water resistant down and 0.5oz/yard noseeum mesh for my baffles. I think I sewed the fabrics inside out but given that I’ll be wearing layers inside the bag, I’m not too worried.

The most radical feature of the bag is the false bottom. Since compressed down doesn’t insulate, I opted to just place a piece of fabric to trap warm air instead of the weight of baffles. This also solves the issue of temperature control without a zipper. Instead of unzipping, I can just rotate the false bottom to face the air. People worry about the bottom being cold, but there is also my sleeping pad to insulate me. So far, I’m still very happy with my decision.

After hours of design, I finally got to sewing, cutting out the fabric went smoothly until the noseeum. Given it’s stretch, its really hard to mark or cut. Eventually, I figured out that I could just tape a straight line while it was slack. In the future, I highly highly recommend just purchasing the pre-cut mesh. It will make your life a lot easier.

After cutting everything out, I sewed the baffles on. This is where I started to notice the failures of my noseeum cutting, with lots of variation in the baffle. However, I just kept rolling with it. Next I hemmed all the edges with heat. I might have failed somehow though since my edges are still fraying in sections. 

After that, I sewed on the other side and filled it with down. It’s a tedious process but it’s fun to finally be giving the bag it’s form. I made the footbox too small and suffered the consequences but it didn’t end up too bad. In the end, while the build quality was definitely objectionable, I’m still happy with the bag. It contains 8.5oz of 850FP down and comes in at a weight of only 12.9oz. I had a great time building it and highly recommend others do so too.

MYOG #1 - Sleeping Pads

 Sleeping pads are probably the most easily customizable piece of gear but I don’t see people doing it as often as you’d think. Closed cell foam customizations are obviously common. Depending on how much you value weight or sleep, you will cut it down to different lengths. Personally, I cut my Thermarest Z-Lite SOL into a 6 piece and 8 piece section. This 6 piece spans between by hip and shoulders, leaving my head to find a pillow and the rest of my body to lay on my backpack. My backpack has a removable foam back panel so this is efficient for me. I use the 8 piece section when I still want the weight savings of a short foam pad yet want just a little more comfort. Scissors or a razor blade works great for this. Just cut it along one of the folds and it will be good as new.

The other less common customization is of inflatable pads. It’s fair to be scared of cutting a gaping hole into your $200 pad but it works. To cut an inflatable pad, lie on it while inflated and mark the seam where you want to cut. Then, cut almost at the next seam . Don’t cut right at the seam or the inner insulation will be connected at the cut. Practice this at a lower portion of the pad to understand a little more of what I’m talking about. Now you should have the fabric and disconnected inner insulation. Either push the insulation into the bag or cut it, then iron the two pieces of shell fabric together at the highest heat. This will hold the air and work great. 

I did this recently for the first time. I found a neoair x-lite NXT with a leak at wonderland gear exchange for $15. It was too big anyways so I cut it down. Luckily, the leak was on the part I had cut off so for $15 and less than an hour of work, I got a light, well sealed pad. Obviously thermarest probably doesn’t recommend this but it’s worked for many people including me. I know Steve House would approve.

End of season Recap 2024

As I’m sitting here, the summer climbing season is coming to an end. The first snow is reaching the mountains, Artist Point just closed, and they gated Cascade River Road. So I figured it’d be a good idea to review the climbing season and discuss my plans for winter. Heres a quick list of my important spring and summer accomplishments

• Skiing Mount Baker(lots of vert, first glaciated ski descent for me)

• Skiing Glacier Peak(first overnight ski tour)

• Cutthroat Peak(first real alpine climb)

• Mount Stuart North Ridge(speaks for itself)

• Nooksack Tower(well that was full on)

• And my lovely trip to Argonaut peak to view larches with Cole

So what are my plans for next this winter then? Heres a quick list:

• Ski the Snoqualmie mountain couloirs

• 3+ day overnight ski tour

• 75 ski days(Prioritie shave changed, we'll see about this one)

• Climb Lincoln Peak(DONE!)

• Ski Shuksan, in the winter

• Ice Crag

• Climb a route that requires AI3/WI3

• Chair peak circumnavigation

• Ski in the Enchantments or Hwy 20(DONE!)

We’ll see how many of these I get down but either way, I’m excited. its good to write em down at least.

Argonaut Peak - NW Arete

 Admittedly I haven’t been getting out enough. Frisbee tournaments, mountain biking, and rough weather have been great excuses but with great weather for the weekend, Cole hit me up about doing something. As with many times this summer, the enchantments looked enticing so for the nth time , we rallied in leavy to feast on some overpriced brats before heading to the most crowded forestlands I’ve ever seen. We were driving by 05:00 the next morning and arrived to a swarm of humanity. I got stuck in the lot for a few minutes but by 05:45, we were hiking.

The colchuck trail never gets better and I think this was the worst time I’ve had on it. We kept a chill pace but still somehow found ourselves keeping a similar pace to a group of trail runners. Trail runners may have been a stretch, it takes more than a salomon adv skin 12 to call yourself a runner. Once we got onto stuart lake trail, the hike became much more pleasant and we soon found ourselves at mountaineers creek. The last time Cole had taken this, we’d struggled through the cairned talus field traverse together so he was pleasantly surprised by the nice forest walk along the creek. Once at the fork in the creek, we crossed the two creeks and made a shitty bushwack upward. The trick here, as we’d learn on the descent, is to cross a log onto the dividing piece of land at the fork in the creeks, then you can continue upward and eventually cross the second creek. 

We continued up forest, never finding a true path. Once we hit the talus, we followed the beta of going into the trees to the right. While this avoids slide alder, it’s still quite a pain. Eventually we reached the slightly more open talus field, where a thousand-ish feet of talus divided by waterfall slabs lead us to the snowfield. For the cliff band in the middle, there is an easy line to the left of the steep(possibly walkable) slab on the right side. Just take the little ridge of dirt and continue straight up. Also, there was running water for us right below the snowfield so don’t carry up 3 liters from the valley like we did.

Given that we didn’t bring crampons, we decided to take the smaller gully to the right instead of the central snow-filled gully. After some sketchy ice-traversing with just axes, we started up the super loose gully. It felt decent for a while until I unleashed a massive table sized flake and a second 3 foot diameter boulder. This got our hearts pumping and we soon reached an impassable slab, especially with just our approach shoes. First we ventured right, but it didn’t lead anywhere. Still pumped up after the massive rockfall, we went left, where Cole lead a runout 5.8R line out of the gully. From here it was soloing up the side with a few nerve-wracking moves that eventually brought us to a secondary gully going left out of the main gully. Cole lead it up to a tree, where we unroped after a short exposed slab and scrambled up heather and larches to the ridge. Our nerves finally settled here and after some beautiful ridge traversing, we reached the base of the normal route.

I started the first pitch of the arete with a long simul block. The carl P topo map seemed to be pretty accurate. To start, you climb barely over the gully to the ingalls creek side, where there’s a nice belay stance by a tree. I climbed through the tree and though decent holds to an easy corner. It’s a pretty ledgy climb and from there, easy terrain lead to a steeper face, where a rightward traverse on ledges lead to amazing jugs to the top. From there, I pulled myself over a block and found a nice terrain belay at the large easy ledge below the right facing corner that starts P4. Cole was feeling pretty tired from the climbing so we decided to pitch out the rest since we had made good time. 

Cole climbed the corner and then headed up to the right side of a mini great-gendarme looking thing. This was some great climbing and put us on the right side of the ridge. From here I climbed up 15-ish feet before traversing right to a gully which I climbed up. I’m pretty sure the correct route takes the smaller, second rightmost gully to easy ground. It still worked out though, with me climbing more right and onto the summit ridge, where a tiny knife-edge brought us to the end of the rope work. From here, we dropped our packs at an obvious bivy site and romped up to the summit.

After some nice summit views, we went back down to the bivy where we saw the comet and enjoyed the sunset views of argonaut and sherpa. It’s cool to have done the four peaks that surround the valley and definitely makes me feel fortunate. With an early sunset, we settled in for the night.

Eleven hours later, I started the morning by scraping ice off my bag. After many groans and grunts, we got moving. A short downclimb brought us to the snowfield, where we melted some snow and easily found the rappel anchors at the gap in the ridge. We replaced most of the anchors and cut out the old tat, though Cole did end up having to lead back up one rappel after the rope got caught. The rappels brought us down to flat ground, where we climbed back up the ridge and then descended a gully one-by-one until we reached the open talus field, where we hiked down to the water-fall slabs and rappelled.

From here, it was more talus field descent. With a better view of the route down, we decided to descend the talus fields to the right, and after a short yet heinous bushwack, we emerged to cairns. From here, there is a faint trail that abruptly stops in places. We crossed the creek about two thirds of the way down, and enjoyed a relatively straightforward descent down to mountaineers creek. Once at the creek, we walked along it a little to far but eventually found our way and by 02:45, we were back at the trailhead. All in all, it was a great little trip. The alternative gully we took definitely satisfied the gnarliness requirement and I’ll never get over the beautiful larches and mountain views.

Prusik Peak - West Ridge

 Sitting deep in the enchantments lies prusik peak. It shoots up above lake Vivian, a beautiful spire of white granite, reminding me of the giants in Patagonia like Cerro Torre. Obviously prusik is not Cerro Torre though, with a well maintained approach and a quick 5.7 line up the west ridge, it begs for the weekend warrior. 

With a free weekend and decent weather, I messaged Emily about doing it on thursday. At 19:00 on Friday night, we met up and decided to do it car to car from stuart lake TH. After a rough sleep in the hustle and bustle of Stuart Lake Trailhead, we got up at 03:00 and were moving by 03:30. While I still maintain my hate for the trail, it is much nicer in early hours when there isn’t as much traffic. 

By 05:15, we made it to Colchuck lake and started the circumnavigation. The sun started to come out as we started up the asgard pass talus field. This was my first time up asgard and it definitely wasn’t as bad as the some said. You simply have to embrace the slog and by 07:15, we were on top. The core-zone is beautiful and I understand the hype. I think I’ve started to become a spoiled alpine climber since I was personally a little underwhelmed but for such an accessible location, it is beautiful.

From Aasgard pass, we worked our way over to Prusik. The trail through the core-zone is well maintained and cairned. We still found our way off trail a few times but with a little rock-hopping, we were able to get back to it. As we neared the base of the west ridge, we saw one party racking up a good bit below the true start. After hearing they were planning on pitching it out, we rushed ahead to the base and I started the first Simul lead.

I ended up going a bit too close to the crest on this lead and put us near a (rap) anchor on the ridge crest but Emily took the lead and we quickly found our way back and got to the base of the offwidth. I started this lead but in approach shoes, I didn’t feel secure so I handed it to Emily. After some less than stylish squirming, she got through the OW. If the stuart gendarme OW is 5.9, I believe this is at least that. 5.7 my ass!

This lead put us on the summit at 11:00. After a little summit break, we started the 5 straightforward raps down the north side. 5 minutes of traversing put us back at the base of the west ridge at 12:00. From here, it was fighting against the crowds of the enchantments loop. Climber Kyle had done the West ridge car to car in 13.5 hours so that was my goal. After being humbled by climbers who had just done acid baby passing us on the way down Aasgard pass, Emily and I split up for the last segment from the lake. At 14:22, I made it back to the car with a time of 12:52 with emily arriving 15 minutes later. I’m super happy with that time but will say that I don’t think the approach is worth it for the climb. I’d like to come back to do the Beckey-Davis or Stanley-Burgner. A quick stop in leavy got me a pretzel and brat and then I was off to Esmeralda Trailhead to go climb Stuart with a friend the next day.

Raging in a Day

    So two weeks ago I had the grand idea to ride all the important trails at Raging River. In a day of course because why not, I probably had the fitness. Previous to this, my longest ride had been just barely over 5000’ but 7000’ shouldn’t be that bad. I was just adding No Service, Physical Therapy, upper ET, and lower Ferdinand the Bull. So maybe more like an extra 2.5k but why not. 

I left seattle at 07:15 and was at exit 27 by 07:45. I pulled in next to a lady I knew from outdoors for all, exchanged plans, and after some valve core troubles, was off by 08:30. I made good progress up the road feeling good. After stashing a bottle at the road turnoff by poppin’ tops, I grinded it out to the top of No Service and arrived at 10:15. I was feeling great and enthused for the long day ahead of me.

There had been recent rain so No Service was super fun. It was a little slick in spots and at one point, I crashed on my side but it was painless. From here I vowed to take it easy on the trails. It would suck if I had to bail the ride if I crashed badly on the second to last run. I started the climb up Return Policy and was still feeling awesome. After a short break in the middle, I hit the top at 11:30. 

CC downhill ran great. 2000’ of descent will always be brutal yet fun. Like No Service, it was slick but manageable, and I always got a shower when I brushed against branches. The climb up raging tiger was much longer than I remembered but I got to the road at 12:30 and took a break while replacing my water bottle with a full one. 30 minutes of steep suffering up the fire road section of RR2, I was at the top of Reverance at 13:00. 

Reverence was easier than the last time I’d rode it. By now, my legs were feeling it but I was still able to keep a reasonable speed. The flow section in the middle felt amazing and while I still made a few mistakes, I survived it unscathed. This was the climb where I finally felt it badly. I stopped 3 times on the way up to the fire-road and it was 14:45 when I made it to the top of PT. Here I took a break and saw the lady from ODFA. She was coming back from No Service and I envied how she just had to do poppin tops and she’d be back at the Car.

PT was super easy and at 15:15 I was again at the bottom. Now all I had left was ET. The techy climb up Pacific Climbing Trail was brutal with my shot legs but by 15:45, I was at the top. With legs of jello, I couldn’t pedal much on the descent, but made it down the flow section, where I traversed over to lower Ferdinand and had a great time on the easy Tech. From the bottom of Ferdinand, I climbed back out and was power-napping on the bench above poppin tops at 16:15. 

Realizing I still had to do ED.

Poppin tops is a great trail but not this time. Upper was admittedly fun but from there, I just wanted to be done. Luckily, it’s all downhill from there and after some sitting on the saddle for lower Poppin tops, I pulled into the lot at 16:30, just as the post-work riders were arriving. It was a mega-fulfilling day and a reminder that big MTB days are possible.

Over the past year I’ve become obsessed with type-2 adventures. Climbing media portrays alpine sufferfests as the cutting edge. Fourteen, sixteen, eighteen hour days have gifted me with a strong sense of accomplishment and reflection. These adventures will always have their place, to push your mind. To force your legs to take another step when they shattered beneath you two miles ago. They are the most reflective, accomplishing days you can get.

As I gave the immovable pedals another crank today, hopeless that I’d be able to pedal up and over to the car, I questioned the reward of this pointless suffering. I love biking but I don’t need to ride to failure. Whether I hit a quick lap of predator or all of raging, I come home satisfied. So will I stop pursuing type-2 fun? I don’t think so but maybe I’ll at least let myself have a chill day more often. Long days provide invaluable reflection but sometimes, all you need is a few jumps on a bike or powder slashes to make you remember what's so great about life.

Nooksack Tower - Beckey-Schmidtke

 

Alpinism has always been what I dreamed of pursuing. The alpine rock of this summer has got me close, but Nooksack tower confirmed my alpine ambitions. It's got a cascadian approach, some glacier slogging, steep snow climbing around bergschrunds, and finally alpine rock on top. And of course like any alpinism objective, there was endless suffering. I first saw Nooksack tower in my Nelson-potterfield book and was quickly fascinated by its striking character. With exposure on all sides, it begs for climbers. With a little beta from CascadeClimbers, Cole picked me up at the yarrow point station and we were off. We picked up some rappel rings, webbing, and a rope at the AAI shop in Bham before driving towards nooksack cirque TH.

My first true taste of alpinism

After sleeping in, we left the trailhead around 09:00. We took the wrong route along the creek but were quickly onto the old railbed, where the endless trail continued until we got to Nooksack river. The tree crossing from the year before was gone, so we bushwacked along the river to the normal ford. Cole went first, bringing the rope so we could set up a tyrolean for the packs. Giving the packs a dip, I completed the nut-freezing ford and put the heavy and now-wet rope back on my pack. So much for dry-treatments.

A shitty tyrolean + my pantless legs

Once across the river, we schwacked for hours, eating blueberries on the way. Eventually we reached the moraine, but quickly headed up some vertical schwacking to gain the ridge. From there, we traversed until we reached the rock slabs around 04:00 but with thunder nearby, we decided to set up a bivy and not go any higher. It would mean an extra 500 feet the next morning but we didn’t wanna risk it with the storms. It was a stunning, flat bivy with views of shuksan and the surrounding mountains. I was worried about the precipitation on my down bag but we were lucky and it missed us, with mosquitos attacking us instead.

Good old schwackin

A beautiful bivy

We got going at 04:00 on saturday morning, prepared for a long day ahead of us. We quickly reached the 5900’ notch and descended onto the glacier with one rappel. From there we slogged after end-running a crevasse and after climbing over a snow-filled gaper, we were at the base of the steep snow by 06:00. Simul climbing with 4 pickets, we reached the top of the snow gully by 08:00 with the snow reaching 65 degrees near the top. 

Cole Climbing up the final pitch of snow

After stashing the snow gear, I led the first pitch, over the chockstones in the right chimney, then a quick rightward traverse and up the easy slabs. From there, we took in coils to simul. There was very sparse protection and lots of loose rock. We gained the false ridge and worked our way up the gully, trying not to throw rockfall onto eachother. At one point, I kicked off a piece that hit coles backpack after he covered from my “rock” call. We worked our way left once possible, crossing a few ribs before reaching the summit around noon. It is certainly solo-able but the sheer amount of loose rock was unnerving. There were many death blocks precariously balanced, ready to fall from any force.

Runout exposed choss

Cole leading a pitch

At the summit, we relaxed a bit before starting our rappels at 13:00. We backed up the rats nests and worked our way down with many double rope rappels, commonly getting the rope stuck during the pulls. On the final rappel down to snow, the rope got so stuck that the 3:1 wasnt getting us anywhere. Cole started jugging up the rope but 3 feet off the ground, it went loose. In hindsight, we should’ve done a 9:1 before considering jugging. Once we retrieved the ropes, we discovered Cole’s rope was coreshot from the pull. We still trusted it for rappelling but with the exposed core, it would have to be cut down after. By now, it was past 16:00 and we still had a lot of snow to get down. We cut some snow bollards into the moat and worked our way down the gully. Even after loosening the rope after the first rappel, we still had to use a microtrax to haul and retrieve the ropes after each rappel. By 18:00, we were down-climbing around the crevasses and after a quick slog and some exposed low 5th class scrambling onto the ridge, we got to camp at 20:30, 16.5 hours after leaving camp and 7.5 hours after starting the descent. We quickly scarfed down some food and got to bed.

On the summit with Shuksan in the background

Summit register

Bomber 2 nut anchors

Almost done with a long-ass day

The next day we woke up at 08:00 and were going by 08:30. Other than getting stung by a bee, the reproach was largely uneventful. The tyrolean went quicker, we were too lazy to take anything off for the river crossings, and we were back at the car by 12:30. All in all, it was an amazing trip into the alpine, and while we definitely complained about it a lot, it was my raddest alpine adventure and already has me excited to keep climbing.