Shaver Family Photos

2006 Summary

The Year’s (2006) News From Bob and Tuckie Shaver , with Jimmy, Ciera, Laura and Deah

Bob and Tuckie’s jobs are unchanged and continue to keep them busy.

Deah  was married last winter to Chris Cooper, and she is also pregnant with our first grandchild, a boy, due in the spring.  Chris is still on loan to a site in Thornton, Colorado, where he works in environmental engineering.   

Laura will complete her B.A. degree in Poly Sci, at UCSD in the spring and plans to attend law school.  She has been working at a law firm while attending school.  Over the Labor Day weekend she joined us on our annual fall backpack.

Ciera made a change this year, leaving Ballet Idaho and joining The Balance Dance company, which focuses more on modern and contemporary dance. She swam on the Boise HS swim team, and qualified for the state meet.  She completed a triathalon, with swimming, biking and running sections, and likes to go on runs in the foothills FOR FUN.  She easily out-hikes Bob on our backpacks, and she continues to love downhill skiing in the winter.

Jim  had  another great year playing spring and fall soccer.  He is a forward, and his team really came together and played well and had fun.  He took third in the Cub Scout pinewood Derby, and is poised to join Boy Scouts in January.  He shaved something like 40 seconds off his best swim times at the city meet, and was honored by his team for that achievement.  He’s moved on from ski team, and is going to try snowboarding this year.  He is an awesome downhill skier, and likes skate cross country skiing as well.   

Over the 4th of July, we traveled to Montrose CO, to visit Bob’s Mom and brother Mike and family.  Going through Salt Lake City, we also visited with good friends Kathy and Kurt Dudley and kids. The whole family visited the Olympic Coast for a backpack, and after the backpack we visited friends and sites in the Puget Sound area.

Besides the family backpack in the Olympics, the family joined by Laura hiked to one of our favorite lakes in the Pioneer Mtns, Kane Lake. Fishing was good, scenery was incredible, and swimming was COLD!! In the sequence below, Jim jumped in on the Ciera's and laura's assurance that they would jump in simultaneously. One, two, three, and only Jim jumped in!  Man was he steamed, and freezing cold at the same time.

Jim was going to push the girls off the rock, but they agreed to keep their promise, and they finally jumped in. Ciera then jumped in a few more times!

Bob covered some trails on his own this year with friends, solo, and with his BSU backpacking class.  Those hikes included Coffee Cup Lake, Lk. Imogene, Banner Ridge snow camping, another trip with Jim and friends to Kane Lake, Mt. Borah, and a trip to the Eagle Caps in Oregon.

In late September, Tuckie’s cousin Luise Schmidt, from Munich Germany, visited.  We showed her the sights of Idaho and Ciera even took her to a Boise High football game. It was great having her here with us.

Bob had a scary and painful October with back problems in the form of sciatica, pain in the leg.  That has subsided, and he is in rehab to get ready for skiing and backpacking.

The Y's Hikers

My brother and I started hiking when we were teens in the Lancaster /Palmdale/ Quart Hill area of  California.  The group we hiked with was the Y's Hikers, a YMCA sponsored hiking group.  We went on a nine day hike each year in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California,and many shorter hikes during the year.  I have been able to contact some of our old hiking friends, like the Lowrys, and Wendy (Teuscher) Schaefer, but others are not so easy to find. This post is up so that if some of them google on their name or image, they might run across an old photo of themselves or their old hiking buddies, and drop me a line.  Between Byron, Conrad, and Mark Lowry, Mike Shaver, Wendy, and myself we have put together trip reports and photo collections of some of our old trips.

Jim Lawrence, James Lawrence.

Mike Powell, Michael Powell

Dean Ranger

John Laine and Tom Curry

Rob Culbertson, Dean Ranger, Bill Morse

Kevin Anderson

Bob Shaver, John Laine, Kevin Anderson

Fall 2006 BSU hike, Coffee Cup Lk.

We had a good backpack this fall to a nice little lake called Coffee Cup Lake, in the Grass Mountains near McCall.  It was about the only place in the state that wasn't experiencing forest fires. We had cool weather but it didn't freeze overnight.  There were no mosquities, and plenty of tent sites for the fairly large group.  Mike caught some really nice sized cutthroat trout, the biggest I've seen from a high mountain lake.  The biggest one was close to 20 inches. The full set of pics is here .

Vintage Motobecane Bike

My fun project of late has been restoring my old bike to its former glory.  In 1973 I bought my first real road bike, a Motobecane Grand Record.  I rode it everywhere, including to work, which was 17 miles one way.  As I had kids, this became the kid hauler, the trailer hauler, the bike for family rides through the orchard country of Wenatchee and Yakima.  When I went to law school in Moscow, a town full of gravel roads, the Motobecane hauled me to classes. After hanging in the garage for 12 years in Boise, down it came for a rebirth. 

The Grand Record has some good features and was toward the top of the line of the Motobecane brand.  I have since learned that many people think that  French road bikes of that period were the pinnacle of road bike design,  and have a different and desireable feel compared to more contemporary road bikes.  The Grand Record has tubes made of Reynolds 531 double butted tubes, and fancy Nervex lugs holding the tubes together.  It has some components made by Campagnolo, the premier bike components manufacturer.  Other componenets are so-so, but thanks to ebay I can upgrade them as part of the overhaul. 

This is the way the frame looked "before". 

These are the "after" shots, although it will look better after some ebay purchased parts get installed.

Kane Lake, Aug 2006

I went with my son Jim, our dog Ginger, and friends Kerry and Erin to one of our favorite lakes, Kane Lake in the Pioneer Range of Idaho.  The scenery was great, but the fish were busy spawning and not jumping into a frying pan like usual.  What was feeding like crazy were the mosquitoes!  However, the views were worth it for me. It was also pretty nice drinking a good cup of coffee sitting on a mountain meadow teaching my son to fly fish at the lakeshore.  How do you get a nice cup of jo in the mountains?  I used my new French press that works inside a Nalgene bottle.  That is a nice piece of equipment.

Olympic Beach Hike

I have recently been teaching my daughter about ballet, and she is getting almost as good as me.  These photos of ballet on the beach and beach camping are from our backpack to the Olympic coast.   

Camp on the beach:

The Ptarmigan Traverse

In 1973 my college buddy Marc Dilley and I went on a famous mountaineering trip in the North Cascades of Washington, near the Canadian border. It is called the Ptarmigan Traverse. It starts at Cascade Pass, which is reached by one of the most spectacular hikes imaginable, spectacular because you are surrounded by incredible peaks on either side. More photos are in the Ptarmigan Traverse photo album.

From Cascade Pass, you leave the trail, not to see another trail for 5 or 7 days, depending on how fast you do the route. Most of the pics below are by Marc.

The view below is by Marc, and shows me in stylin' red socks, wool knickers, and ventile cotton anorak, standard mountaineer garb of the 70's, when wool was king and synthetic fabric was only a dream. We were camped with a view of El Dorado Peak, about halfway to the second pass of the trip, Cache Col.

Looking down at where the trip started we could see Cascade Pass and Forbidden Peak, and Sahale Arm, which leads to Sahale Pk off to the right of the picture below.

Our second night on the trip was spent at a small lake named Kool Aid Lake. There is usually no lake to be seen here, as its usually frozen and covered by snow. In the evening at Kool Aid Lake a cloud formed over us and swirled about in the golden evening sun. It had a real magical air about it.   

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The photo below is of me looking down at the valley floor from Kool Aid Lake.  I was trying a hair style called the "mountain man".  The route of the Ptarmigan is on the mountains above those big U shaped glacial valleys. The valley bottoms are impassible, with devils club and alder thickets, and no trails.  The valley walls are very steep, and level out on their upper part to a flatter profile, which is covered by snow and glaciers.  The glaciers have carved away the mountains until all that is left is a knife edge ridge between the glaciers on either side of the ridge.  The route of the Ptarmigan follows these upper areas high above the valley floor, and crosses the glaciers and the passes between the glaciers and ridges.

 

On the third day of the trip, you have to cross a rocky ridge near Mt. Formidible, and also this snow filled gulley. This is called "the red band", for the band of red rock that leads up to the snow gulley. I crossed first in this photo from my third Ptarmigan, cutting steps in the hard snow. Then I belayed my partner across. The run out below the snow crossing is not pretty, so your heart is pumping pretty good as you move your ice axe with each step, and concentrate on not tripping on your own crampons. Carrying a 70+ pound pack does not make things easier either.

The photo below shows the group after leaving Yang Yang Lakes, climbing a ridge, and approaching the main obstacle of the fourth day. The route is to head toward the dark rock wall, descend to the left towards the big scary glacier, then pick your way through the crevasse fields of that big mother glacier, and top out on a pass next to the pointy peak at the right of the picture. The crevasses were so incredibly deep, maybe 200 feet deep. Crossing the snow bridges was a little disconcerting.

The view below shows the glacier more clearly, and our route up the right side of the glacier, through the crevasses and up the slope.  The visible crevasses are easy, its the hidden crevasses that are dangerous.

Mark Gibson descending a steep snow slope with a big pack. The danger was in sliding down the snow and sliding right over the little rock ledge, below which were cliffs.

We camped on an flat spot below Le Conte Pk, and in the evening thought we would head up and see if we could climb it.  We took ice axes, but no rope.  It got pretty steep at the top, but we reached the top, looked around, and then looked down at our route.  We all thought "Oh Crap, that is a lot steeper than I want to downclimb!".  It was dang steep.  The fellow in the photo is standing about vertical, and you can see that the snow slope is right in his face.  It had to be 60 degrees, which is the steepest snow can stick to rock.  Plus if you got sliding you would be down in those rocks long before you could self arrest.  Do not ever climb Le Conte Pk without a rope or a helicopter, thats what I learned.

The view fromWhite Rock Lakes to Dome Peak (below) is pretty impressive, and its made more impressive by periodic calving of house sized chunks of ice that break off the glacier and fall over the cliffs below, forming a temporary white flow of ice pieces over the rock. That goes on all day and all night. 

The last pass of the trip is on the ridge between Dome Peak and Spire Point, and is called Spire Pass.  We climbed Spire Point, then rested at Spire Pass (below) before heading down to Cub Lake.  The slopes below Spire Pass on the southern side were so steep and slippery with grass and moss that we thought about putting our crampons on for the descent. Of course there was no trail

The photo below shows me in white and another guy approaching the top of Dome Peak, which has really breathtaking dropoffs on either side.  It is definitely not a "dome". It was tempting to get down on hands and knees and crawl out there, when you realized on either side was just about vertical for a long ways

The photo below is as we were rappelling down from Spire Point.  Spire Point is so sharp there is no place to sit on the summit, even for one person.  Each person gets to a ledge below the summit, pulls up to the knife edge ridge that is the summit, looks around at the view over your knuckles, maybe peeps down the other side, which is vertical, and drops back down to the ledge below.  From the ledge we rappelled down. Its about a 5.5 climb, which is enough for me when the exposure is like that. A rock was kicked down from above that came down the route like a cannon ball.  It didn't hit anyone, or they'd be dead.

Holiday Newsletter, 2005

Bob’s law firm (Dykas, Shaver and Nipper  LLP) are the proud owners of a 100 year old house near downtown Boise.  The five attorneys and three staff fit in the house nicely, and we rent out three office spaces to other small businesses.


Deah and boyfriend Chris Cooper relocated from Seattle, Washington to Thornton, Colorado, where he is the manager of a construction operation and she is working in the office of the same company.   

Laura is studying full-time at UCSD and continues to work at a Law firm in San Diego.  Laura plans to go to law school after college.

Ciera performed her 6th Nutcracker, dancing in “The Waltz of the Flowers”.  She continues to intensely study Ballet and Modern Dance with Ballet Idaho. She swam a killer 200 meter freestyle race on swim team,  jogs in the foothills, out-hiking us on our family backpack, and she continues to burn up the slopes free skiing with her friends.

Jim  had  great spring and fall soccer seasons, playing a forward and scoring goals.  He took third in the Cub Scout pinewood Derby, and the butterfly seems to be his favorite event on swim team.  With his super-G abilities from ski team, (in which he just started his fourth year) he leaves us all in the dust on the slopes as well as the hiking trail.


Tuckie took a quick trip to the Seattle area in August, connecting with friends and enjoying the Pike Place Market, downtown and the Olympic Peninsula with the kids.

Bob covered a lot of miles this year in our beautiful Idaho mountains.  The year started with his BSU winter camping outing in February.  The family day hiked over the 4th of July to Farley Lake.  Bob and one of his  Law firm partners ventured into the White Clouds in July.  And Bob, Jim and another friend hiked to one of our favorite lakes, Kane Lake for more good fishing, then Bob went with 4 friends on a three day loop hike in the Sawtooths.  Labor Day the family hiked to spectacular Sawtooth Lake and the season ended with his backpack class going to Rapid Lake near McCall.

A trip to Montrose, Colorado at the end of July to celebrate the wedding of nephew Mark Shaver, took us through Utah, Wyoming and Denver where they had a chance to visit Bob’s Uncle Billy and Aunt Eileen.   
 






More 2005 photos are here...

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas from the Shavers

Sawtooth Lake

If there is one lake in the Sawtooths you have to see, it is Sawtooth Lake.  My wife and I visited the lake 15 years ago, and again this past weekend.  Its about a 5 mile hike, and another mile around the lake to the best campsites, with about 1700' in elevation gain.  On this trip, our daughter Ciera (14) and son Jim (9) joined us.   The scenery didn't disappoint, and we were reminded of the cobalt blue of this deep lake, the biggest in the Sawtooths.  The lake is at 8500', which could have resulted in lows close to freezing.  It didn't freeze, but it was cold.  We camped below 10,200' Mt. Regan, shown in the third photo, which is a peak that Tuckie and I climbed pretty close to the summit 15 years ago.  This time we decided to sleep in and read books all day. 

Fall 2005 BSU Backpacking Class

A total of 18 of us hiked to Rapid Lake on the weekend of Sept 10-11.  It was very scenic there, very cold at night, very heavily visited by sheep.  If no one gets sick, then our filters worked, because there were sheep berries everywhere.  The sheepherder was Ruben, from Peru.  He had two border collies to move the sheep, and two Great Pyrenness to gaurd them from wolves and bears.  He had 4 horses, and three mules to move his camp and get supplies for the animals and himself. 

It was about 4.5 miles in, with 1200 ft of elevation gain, a nice easy hike.  Chris S. lugged a float tube to the lake, and did very well catching some nice fish.  He was using a sinking fly which was a red version of a renegade, which  he ties himself. 

Kellie took a dip in the cold water, and it was warm compared to her Polar Bear activities. 

It was pretty cold at night, in the low 20s we figured, and several people were cold.  Hello Sara, a foam pad helps a lot!  That night made a down sleeping bag look a pretty good investment.  Next time I'll bring a few extra sleeping bags up there, and sell them at about 2 AM for $500 each.  I'll bet I'd sell out.  This fall trip was to Rapid Lake near McCall.  We got to try out Josiah's alcohol stove, and it seemed to work fine.  The fire was going late into the night, and was restarted early in the morning .  It threatened to rain on us, but snowed instead, a few tiny flakes. 

Kane Lake Trip '05

Here is what I got to do last weekend.  My nine year old son Jim, myself and my friend Josh hiked in to a lake in the Pioneer Range in Idaho, at 9200' in elevation.  It was a 3 mile hike, with 1600 feet of elevation gain.  We caught fish, saw mountain goats, were bitten by a few mosquitos, were chased by ferocious grizzly bears (OK, I made that one up) hiked up a nearby ridge, and saw some pretty nice scenery.

We pondered the philosophical question of whether there is any beneficial aspect at all to mosquitoes and ticks.  We figured that mosquitoes fed the fish, but what good are ticks to anything?

Toxaway Loop Hike

I went on a fun trip the weekend of Aug 21-22.  It started a bit differently, as we hiked in to Farley Lk in the dark.  My Petzl headlamp was great, and so light.  Next day we camped at Toxaway Lk, and caught a few fish.  Next day we went over 9000' Snowyside pass, and camped at Alice Lake.  Fish were jumping there, but were picky about striking dry flies or lures.  This loop, which starts and ends at Petit Lake in the Sawtooths of Idaho, is about an 18 mile round trip, doable as a tough day hike, or a moderate 3 or 4 day hike.

The Crazies: Kerry, Bob, Mike, Gill, Curtis, and dog Ginger

Ran into friends Josh, Bryan, Kristen, and Ginger on Snowyside Pass.

 

Kerry waded (I call it a swim because he was wet to his neck) out to a submerged ledge to try to get to the fish in deep water at Alice Lake.

Morning sun hitting the peaks around Alice Lake.

2005 Winter Camping Class

The Winter Camping class of 2005 was a great success (nobody died).  Photos are at: Winter Camping 2005.

December 2004 Holiday Newsletter

From Bob and Tuckie Shaver, with Jimmy, Ciera, laura and Deah

Dykas, Shaver, and Nipper, LLP, continues to thrive and Bob's newest project is the creation of a work related blog, featuring articles about patents, technology, and science.  It's received some good reviews, and has literally dozens of readers!  Check it out at www.patentpending.blogs.com.  Bob achieved two huge feats this year by climbing Mt. Borah, Idaho's tallest peak at 12,660 ft in mid July and then joining buddies Jim and Mary Cook in summitting Mt. Shasta, 14100 ft, at the end of July. Bob also continues to educate students at BSU in the finer points of backpacking and winter camping.

The Crime Prevention Unit in the Boise City Police Dept. continues to keep Tuckie busy and active throughout the community as well as her participation in Toastmasters, PEO and the Idaho Crime Prevention Association. She took the kids to Seattle in July when Bob was on Shasta and then was back in the area again the end of August for her 30 year High School reunion.  In October, a conference yet again brought her back to Seattle. Each trop was great fun and enabled her to see a few good friends.

Winter '04 found Ciera and Jim skiing every weekend with the ski team at Bogus Basin, Ciera's fourth and Jim's second year.  They are both getting pretty good.  We went to Brundage for a weekend, and the kids skiied on harder slopes than the parents.  Bob and Tuckie's favorite ski day is to go skate skiing for an hour or so, join the kids for lunch, and downhill ski a few hours in the afternoon.

January found Bob driving with Laura to San Diego, to get laura set up to live the southern California lifestyle.  laura later visited us in May.

In Cub Scouts, Jim and Bob built a pinewood derby race car that was the fastest in the pack, and Jim went on to the District race.  Much to everyone's surprise, including us, Jim and his car were undefeated in the district race as well. This photo shows Jim with the district trophy.  Jim also is sporting some road rash from a bicycle crash that earned him 20 stitches in his chin.

March found us visiting the Arches National Pard and Bob's Mom in Montrose CO.  We thought if we hiked out to Delicate Arch at sundown, we might be the only ones there.  About 100 other hikers and photographers had the same thought!  It was a nice view, and it was also great to visit Grandma. While there, we spent a day at Telluride, photo below.

 

April found us saying goodbye to Tuckie's Dad, Frank.  He faded fast at the end, and we had a nice memorial at our house, with a digital slide show of Frank's family photos, scanned by Bob into a nice collection.

Along with a big swim team commitment for both kids over the summer, July proved to be the busiest with a lot of fun travel. We went to visit Tuckie's sister Lou and family at Solvang CA, to be joined by other sister Judy, and Tuck's Mom.  We stayed a few days in Solvang, than spend a few days with Laura in San Diego,where we hit Lego Land and Sea World.  On the way out of CA, we went on an overnight backpack in the Sierra Nevada.

We went on several family backpacks with our friends the Smiths, and their kids.  One was to a secret lake in the White Cloud Mountains of Idaho, and another on Labor Day to Kane Lake. Fishing was good at Kane Lake, and everyone caught fish, we saw mountain goats, and had perfect weather.

Ciera is in dance class 5 days a week and again this year, performed in the Nutcracker.  Jim continues with soccer, and his team finished as league champs this fall.   

Laura is working at a law firm in San Diego, and preparing to finish college there, having finished her AA degree in WA.  She has two nice roommates, and lives not far from the beach. 

   

Deah is office manager at her Mom's counseling office, and has gotten into horseback riding. She lives with her Mom on Mercer Island, WA.

Jim (8) is in third grade, Ciera (13) in eigth.  Ciera sings with the North Junior High Choir.

Email addresses:

Bob: shaver@dykaslaw.com

Tuckie: tbs@fiberpipe.com

Ciera: prettysweet701@hotmail.com

Bob's work blog: www.patentpending.blogs.com

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

From the Shaver Family

1515 Shenandoah Dr.

Boise, ID 83712

Bob's Fall '04 BSU class hike to Box Lake

Bob's BSU hike to Box Lake, near McCall, has photos here - Box Lake.

 

Tuckie's Bainbridge Trip, Oct 2004

Tuckie went to Seattle in October 2004, on a work trip, and spent some time in Brainbridge.  Photos are at Bainbridge.

Mt. Shasta, 2004

Jim and Mary Cook and I went to northern California in August to climb Mt. Shasta , a volcanic peak with an elevation of 14116 feet.  Photos are at Shasta.

The first night we camped in the woods at our car, and the next morning got started on the trail at Bunny Flat at 8:10 AM.  We hiked a nice trail to the cabin at Horse Camp, which we thought was an easy 1000 feet of elevation gain.  From there we hiked up a trail made of large rocks, which ended up in a scree filled trail, and we thought it was a hard 1000 feet of elevation gain to a bench where we rested. The next 1000 feet was cross country over loose rocks, to Helen Lake, 10,400 feet in elevation, where we arrived about 1:30 PM.  We tried to nap and rest for the hard day to come.

We started from Helen lake at 4:10 AM, and by 5:30 AM we had gained about 1000' and were at the bottom of an outcropping of rock called the Heart. By then it was starting to get light as dawn approached.  We were in the shadow of the mountain, so even after dawn we were in the shade for a long time.

By 7:30 we had gained another 1000', and were at the top of the snow field, and directly below some bands of red rock that had to be scaled. The route up was through a narrow gulley in the red rock, on a narrow band of snow that had been hardened to ice by thawing and freezing.  By 9:00 we had climbed about another 1000'  and were through the red bands of rock and came out on a plateau, at the bottom of Misery Hill, at 13,200'.  From there a dusty trail resumed. We rested a bit, ate some, and headed on.  I felt pretty good at this point, and pretty energetic.  I think climbing Mt. Borah two weeks previous to this trip was a great warm up to this climb.

We went up the trail up Misery Hill, along a ridge, and across a large flat ice filled plateau.  Across the plateau, we were at the summit spire, which was another 150' or so of gain.  At 10:30 AM we were on the peak, at 14,161. Its supposed to be 3 hours to the red rock band, 3 more hours to the top, so we were right on schedule.

We didn't stay long, as clouds were building.  By 11:10 AM we were down to bottom of Misery Hill, and by 11:45, we were at a notch that allowed us to pass through the red bands of rock.  Going down some rocky areas was slow, and tricky, and then we were on the snow fields again.  I glissaded the whole way down, starting about 12:30.  There were chutes that had been carved into the snow by previous climbers, and they were as wide a a person's butt, and sometimes 2 or 3 feet deep.  They were steep in places, did some great curves and bends, and you could get out of control.  I was in camp by 1:00 PM  at Helen Lake.  We had placed a large plastic garbage bag on the ground, with snow in it, and the solar heat had provided us with a nice supply of water during the day.

By 2:00 we had packed up and started hiking out from Lk Helen.  It was about 2000 vertical feet to horse camp, which took us a few hours, and it was starting to sprinkle.

At 3:30 we left Horse camp for the trailhead, in a light rain, and were at the car by 4:30.  During the trip we used my Dragonfly stove, and used 1.5 small bottles of fuel, about 3 hours of burning to melt snow.  That was pretty impressive.

Mt. Borah, 7-2004

I just limped in from climbing Mt. Borah, at 12,662' the highest peak in Idaho. The photos are at Mt. Borah.  It was 4.5 miles in distance from the car, with about 5600' of elevation gain. Quite a bit of it is on a rough trail, but some was scrambling over a ridge that was exposed on both sides. That ridge is called chickenout ridge, for good reason. After the ridge, you have to downclimb about 20 feet of steep rock to a 30 feet long horizontal snow ridge, with steep dropoffs down snow fields on both sides. I was going pretty steady to 12,000' then really slowed down. I was taking rests every 20 feet or so. On the way down, my knees were really tired, and I really used my hiking poles for stepping down from rock to rock.

The snow ridge was no big deal. I carried an ice axe, and didn't even use it. The top of the ridge had fairly deep footprints and snow was not icy, so you just walked across. If you started sliding down the snow slopes, it would not be pretty, but just don't get started.

I really liked my hiking poles, and this was the first time I have ever used them. I took 3 liters of water, drank liberally all day, and was out of water about an hour from the car on the way down.

It got hot, and if the weather goes bad, it could get very cold very quickly, so dress accordingly.

When you reach chickenout ridge, the trail basically dead ends at a rock wall. YOu think, "what the ...? Where did the trail go?" I was tempted to angle to the right at that point, and found that was not the way. I had to climb straight up a steep headwall. (of course in that situation you can't just go back, as that would confirm that you had made a routefinding mistake)

Instead, at the first cliff, go straight up it, then weave in and out on the ridge that follows. It is a bit exposed, but the rock is solid, the handholds plentiful, and just keep 3 points of contact at all times. Its scary enough that you are fully concentrating, and not likely to make slips ups.

When the way is blocked by insurrmountable rocks, go around them to the left. That happens twice. When you get to the last little cliff before the snow ridge, you just have to downclimb it. Its steep, but has good handholds if you go slow and find them. One guy was there with his kids, and he belayed them down. I would with my kids too.

Other than the ridge, its a rough trail. It is punishing and exhausting though. It was 4 hours up and 4.5 hours down for me. You need to leave the cars by 6am or 7am at the latest.