Week 57 Oct. 02 - Vesper Peak

Total Distance: Approximately 8 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 4000 ft
Time: 8:30 am - 3:00 pm
Weather: Mostly cloudy, periods of light rain and periods of glorious sunshine.

If you are an avid reader of the blog, then you might remember I met two people while climbing Mt. Adams.  As we chatted near the summit, I shared information about my blog, and the woman I met later commented on my blog and included her blog address (http://rosiedee101.tumblr.com/).  I have been reading her blog ever since. Early last week, her blog entry about Vesper Peak popped up one of my many RSS feed readers, and her pictures had peaked my interest.  I followed her links to more information about the peak, and I decided this is where I was going.  I shared the idea with my buddy Creighton, and he was excited to go bag a 6200 ft peak too.  The plan was to pick the better weather day and go.  By Thursday, all the weather forecasts were indicating Sunday would be the best day.

We met at 6 am on Sunday, hit the grocery store, and were on the road by 6:20 am.  We arrived at the trailhead at 8:15 am.  We were the only car in the lot at this time .  We geared up and were walking by 8:25 am.  The trail starts in the woods, and after a few stream crossings, it begins climbing.  The rest of the hike would have a similar incline.  There were sections that were as steep as any any trail I have ever hiked.  The phrase "chin-scrapper" seemed appropriate for some sections of the hike.  After about 30 minutes we hit a big stream that took a little more care crossing, then we were out in an open meadow.  The meadow was steep in sections as well, as we switched back across the valley, up towards Headlee Pass.

In all the descriptions of the hike that I had read, it mentioned that the pass was hidden until you are right underneath it.  I don't know why, but I am usually surprised at how accurate some of the trail descriptions are.  We kept climbing through the meadow until we finally hit the west side rock scree slope.  The trail changed from meadow to a cairn chasing rock path.  Walking along the west flank for about 10 minutes, when finally the trail starts to switchback below the pass.  The pass is not visible until you are standing right below it, and standing below it is intimidating.  The trail is visible up to the top as it cuts back and forth over this narrow saddle.

At the pass, we took our first break to drink some water, and Creighton had a snack.  I should have to but was not hungry at the moment.  We could see Vesper for the first time from the pass.  After about a 10 minute break, we pushed on to Vesper Lake.  The trail drops a bit from the pass, then cuts along the rock scree south of Sperry Peak.  We had to do a  bit of bouldering right before Vesper Creek, then we crossed the creek, and started following the trails up to the summit.  The weather at this point was fairly cloudy and was getting cooler with a strong breeze.  I was feeling shaky, and called up to Creighton who was about 200 feet ahead.  I needed a bite to eat, since it had been almost 4 hours since my breakfast of two donuts and coffee.  After some trail mix, I was feeling a lot better.

Creighton spotted mountain goats while I was eating, and he tried to show me where they were.  I missed them.  We kept climbing up the trails, until we hit snow.  Creighton is a maniac on the snow, so he took off up the snow fields.  I was not liking the grip I was getting, so I found climbing over the granite was easier.  I had a few sections where I had to snow traverse, but they were short sections and usually between big sections of granite.  As I was scrambling up over the granite, I could feel my cheeks hurting from my smile.  Twenty minutes earlier I was silently contemplating why anyone would want to summit a peak.  Vesper Lake looked beautiful and we could just have stopped there.  The last 2000 feet to the top was not really going to be worth it.  I could not have been more wrong.  Right below the summit, I was scrambling up a crack between the snow and rock.  I felt like a serious, cool mountain climber, as I was lifting myself though the terrain, inching closer to the summit.  Finally around 11:30 am, I reached the top and was rewarded with amazing views in all directions.

Creighton and I took a good hour break here at the summit.  We took pictures, ate lunch, relaxed in the sun, layered up to cut out the wind, and had many great conversations on various subjects.  We began our decent around 12:30 pm.  On our way down, when we hit the biggest snow patch, Creighton went off down the snow almost like he was skiing in shoes.  I followed along a similar path, although less graceful.  I was proud that I did not fall, but I should not have bragged about it.

Orchid: The summit and shoe-skiing the snow field.

Onion: The downhill falls and the aching knees.

Picture:

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