Penguin Ridge

Finally got out to do Penguin Ridge. This thing has mega classic status, all my friends have been like "you still havent done it?!" whenever it comes up. The weather and stars finally aligned for Julie and I to take a day mid week off to go hike all day. Thanks to Dave for picking up Finn and Holly for taking care of Lucy for the day, she would have been thirsty on this one and Finn would have been hard pressed cooking himself dinner... We went Penguin to California Creek, took us 12 hrs with amble breaks with the heat and a moderate but steady pace. Photos..

King Peak in the Distance

Somewhere around Chinstrap

Descending off Gentoo

I finally brought my camera

I've gotten really into mountain running the last few years. Linking up trails, ridges, tundra, goat paths anything goes. Run when you can, and basically tear it up. Somehow my body is tolerating it. Usually I don't bring a camera since I generally go to the usual suspects of front range peaks.

Friday was different. Perfect weather.  I played hookey and got Dave (fellow member of team Icepop) to sign up for linking a ridge together neither of us had done before. I brought my camera to try to give a taste for it. So here is almost 8 hrs of continuous movement with 2 summits compressed into 2 minutes. The route delivered!



and if you are reading this in Anchorage - forget about the lower Williawaw lake trail that goes under the ball field for the rest of the summer. trust me.

The glolden orb has returned!

Lucy was complaining the other day about how few new peaks she's bagged this summer. Always the same old nearby stuff. So we headed off to do the Elliot ridge and peak starting from Stuckagin. We did a part of the ridge last fall in the other direction.

So this was Near Point to Wolverine then the ridge to Elliot. Dropped down to Williwaw lakes (found a sweet goat trail). Then over the pass to Long lake and out the valley up and over near point again. Awesome loop on more trails made by sheep than people.

EDIT!! Lucy had in fact bagged this peak before, you can tell by the way she guided me the entire day and ran me into the ground.

Falls creek wind fest

Ok so I got my camera back from Panasonic and after a 2 month hiatus this blog will now return to it's usual banter.

Dave twisted my arm to take advantage of the 6 hr weather window this morning to see some new terrain.. for me at least.
Started at Falls Creek and made a hard left to go straight up the ridge instead of the valley trail. The ridge does not mess around gaining elevation from the arm.

 Some curious Sheep:

The views matched the wind at times, both huge!

Linking up some stellar sheep trails.. they make the best ones out there.

Cruising the ridge after about 4,000' up. still windy!

With a constant blow of about 50-60 mph (?) here we decided to skip entering the vortex over south Suicide and bail on our planned route.

Dropped down to the head of Falls Creek and headed back up the gully on the left to the Indian house ridge in the background.

B

Back up to high sheep trail runnin'

and down the Indian house ridge (steep!)...

Thanks Dave, that was sweet!