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ozzy The hard way
Joined: 30 Jul 2015 Posts: 476 | TRs | Pics Location: University place, wa |
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ozzy
The hard way
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Sat Jun 27, 2020 11:24 pm
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Well it's been a season of alpine starts so to carry on said trend I recruited fellow outsider enthusiast, Hans, to partake in another worthy endeavor. The main objective for this mission was Graybeard and maybe something else if we had the energy. I grabbed Hans up at the Everett park and ride then soon enough we found ourselves at the easy pass th. We started walking around 115am and made quick time to the basin below easy pass. It's still amazing to me how early you see the sun's first light coming up in the alpine!! I mean it was like just after 3am and we could already see light on the horizon! We slogged our way up to the pass and made it to a nice little perch(just east of the pass) to enjoy the sunrise and maybe sip a little whiskey lol! The sunrise was amazing and the easy pass area does not disappoint. Truly some rugged country back in here!
out east toward golden horn sun fighting it's way up its 5 o'clock somwhere!? there he is
After the sweet sunrise we gingerly made our way towards Graybeard. We follow the ridge east of the pass to about 7000ft. Then we made a generally level traverse around to the south a bit until we found a nice spot to drop into the basin SW of Graybeard. The views were just what the doctor ordered in this time of disease and famine! Man the Fisher creek valley is something else, one of the most beautiful places in the state in my humble opinion. Once in the basin below the peak there is a little snow filled gully that you can ride almost all the way to the top, at least this time of year! We donned crampons and axes and started up. From below the view was really foreshortening making it a little longer than expected. On the other hand the snow was excellent for pons and the severity of the gully was not near as bad as anticipated! The steepest part of the snow was about the last 20ft, after that we took the pons off and squeezed down the moat to the base of a chimney of sorts. This was the crux for sure, it was probably no more than class 4 but was covered with alotta loose crap. You're outta the chimney in 10ft then just a easy ridge scramble to the summit!! Wow!! Views for days up here! We had a fun time naming summits climbed and unclimbed, eating, sipping whiskey, and taking a 1 1/2hr powernap!! Ahhhh what a tough life.
Mesahchie pk from traverse south face Graybeard the sweet gully Hans, Mesahchie and friends up Fisher creek valley is insane almost topped out outta the moat up the chimney where the hell am I black pk and Fisher cheers admirin
After bummin on the summit we made our way back down. The gully needed to be down climbed facing in for the first 100ft or so and after that it was easy. We made a couple fat glissades down to the basin below and made our traverse towards easy pass. It was cool to see some larches along the way too, although not gold. At this point my ankle started nagging me a bit so I wasn't too keen on taking up another mission. So as the gods would have it we arrived at easy pass and looked up to see new morning peak beckoning us!! In the blink of an eye my ankle pain was gone! One more!? Why not its right there lol! So up we went. We didn't have any beta but it looked straight forward from down there. New morning pk sits about 800ft above easy pass just to the NNE. We walked nice grassed slopes to the top of the ridge then followed that to the peak. The ridge starts out rocky but easy then you have to drop down a gully and traverse nasty dirt covered ledges. These aren't fun and are exposed in a few places. Once off the ledges you enter a broad orange gully which you take to the top! This little f### peak added some extra spice to the trip for sure! We hung out for a little but were more anxious to get back down in one piece so off we went. It took only an hour to make it up from the pass and 30min to get down. We lingered at the pass for a little and soaked in the last of the views. What another badass day in the hills!! Cheers to all the wanderers out there!!
down the gully on Graybeard looking back up Graybeard traversing back towards easy pass new morning pk from pass Logan in clouds Graybeard, fisher, black mellow section of ridge honeymoon, kitling, mesahchie the prize Hans dropping down at the start of the nasty sh## Hans holdin on lookin down the orange gully, Hans is down there by that rock outcropping north face of Graybeard
“I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but I wanna have my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames”-Mr Mojo Risin
“I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but I wanna have my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames”-Mr Mojo Risin
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puzzlr Mid Fork Rocks
Joined: 13 Feb 2007 Posts: 7220 | TRs | Pics Location: Stuck in the middle |
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puzzlr
Mid Fork Rocks
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Sun Jun 28, 2020 7:25 pm
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Interesting to see such great photos of an area I'm not familiar with. It looks like you hit the weather perfectly.
I'm curious about the aspect ratio of your photos. Both the vertical and horizontal ones I checked are ~19.5 x 9, as compared to a normal "panorama" size of 16 x 9. The long dimension is more than twice the length of the short dimension. This works great for those horizontal panos, but the vertical ones look a little stretched out (but they're not). Is this what your camera does by default?
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dp Member
Joined: 08 May 2012 Posts: 14 | TRs | Pics
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dp
Member
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Sun Jun 28, 2020 9:52 pm
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Great job on getting up there. That is a great area for peak bagging.
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OutOfOffice Member
Joined: 02 Jun 2015 Posts: 91 | TRs | Pics Location: Seattle |
Whiskey on an alpine start will wake you up right.
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awilsondc Member
Joined: 03 Apr 2016 Posts: 1324 | TRs | Pics
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Nice job man! Graybeard has definitely piqued my interest in recent years, looks like fun! Then throw in a bonus peak on the way out... good day in the mountains for sure.
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ozzy The hard way
Joined: 30 Jul 2015 Posts: 476 | TRs | Pics Location: University place, wa |
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ozzy
The hard way
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Tue Jun 30, 2020 8:14 pm
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Thanks yall for the kind words!!
Puzzlr- oh yeah thanks for pointing that out man! Seems my camera phone was set to the full screen mode for some reason, this explains the stretched portraits. Lol I still don't know a lot about photography so I probably wouldn't have noticed.
“I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but I wanna have my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames”-Mr Mojo Risin
“I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but I wanna have my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames”-Mr Mojo Risin
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