Will Hill
Scrambling
Successful
Successful summit via the "toilet route"!
Hike primary in the forest until you get to junction to Thornton Lakes and Trappers Peak.
Early start on route. Descent was crowded with groups descending from South rib.
Jotunheimen National Park (the “Land of the Giants”) is an immense and dramatic landscape and we explored a large part of it on an 8-day hut to hut trek beginning and ending at Gjendesheim Turisthytte (accessed by a private charter from Oslo). We had three gorgeous days, three days of nearly solid mist and rain, and a couple of clear days but snow had fallen on the heights so our planned route had to be changed. The scenery was awe-inspiring and gorgeous wide panoramas with lots of lakes, streams, peaks and glaciers all around. However, much of the route was very rocky (a marked route rather than a trail) and there were extended sections (hours at a time!) of sketchy boulder-hopping which made the days exhausting and treacherous in the rain, particularly the last few hours of Gjendesheim to Glitterheim and from Skogadalsboen to Fondsbu.
Hardy group takes on ScotchBroom and Tansy at Coldwater Lake.
The Lofoten archipelago may be the most stunning place for backpacking, hiking and rock climbing that no one has ever heard of! During our 12-day adventure (starting in Bodø on the mainland and ending in Evenes at the north end of the archipelago) our group camped at 4 different lovely beach and alpine sites and walked up 7 different trekkers peaks, rode ferries to multiple roadless destinations, plus explored a number of the Lofotens’ most iconic fishing villages and stayed in two rorbuers, brightly colored seasonal fisherman’s cabins along the water that have been converted into comfortable tourist lodgings.
This trek was a totally custom, off-trail adventure involving a jetboat ride up and down the narrow Leones river, a zodiac ride along a lake filled with iceburgs and across another lake to the toe of a large glacier, crossing multiple rushing rivers by pulling oneself and pack across several Tyrolian wires on a harness, and stunning trekking across high alpine terrain past lakes and moraine to a camp on a pass looking directly across to Monte San Valentin, the highest peak in Chilean Patagonia, and a very challenging day-walk up an unnamed peak to a vantage point in the middle of several glaciers flowing down from the North Patagonian Icefield. Participants carried overnight gear and food for 5 nights/6 days.
Out and back to Lila Lakes with side trips up Alta and Mt. Margaret.
A very wet hike, everyone kept their spirits up.
These two treks are premier short (3-5 day) treks in Central Patagonia with gorgeous views, suitable for strong hikers who have the gear, fitness and experience to carry a pack with all their food and overnight gear up to 10 miles/day and 2200’/day of gain on somewhat rugged terrain (steep slopes and scree ascents and descents) for 4-5 days.
Overall, this was a fun and relaxing climb on good rock with a great partner, and perfect weather. Pretty much perfect.
Overall, the approach, climb, and decent went smoothly and without incident, the students and rope leads did and awesome job, and the conditions on climb day were ideal.
WaPass two-fer of climbs with fun ridge traverses on a beautiful day.
Smooth trip up Kangaroo Temple with a strong, fit group.
Long but interesting 3 day backpack with 31 mikes and 7000 elevation gain. Leader was able to handle different paces and a very large group (11) well.
Road in good condition, but a sign said it would close August 19--31st? The "trail" is overgrown. Some bushwhacking around river crossing. Sloan glacier looks sad.
