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Great
Northern was the big Hike we had planned from the beggining. |
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Unfortunatley
not many others wanted to climb it. The Highline trail was supposed
to be an easy warm up hike. During it we built up Great Northern
to be very difficult. We called it names like "Nutcracker"
and "Ballbuster". |
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A good
deal of people were still tired or sore from the Highline Trail,
so when it came time to climb Great Northern they passed it
up. Only three of us took this hike. Myself, my Uncle Kevin,
and my Cousin Andrew Lombardi. |
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It may
have been a good thing that some people passed it down. The
first two hours of hiking was a very steep upward climb through
the forest. I am not in great shape, but not in bad shape either.
I struggled very much with the start of it. |
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Once we
got up above the tree line to the cliffs it began to get a bit
easier. The grade was not as steep for a while, and we got some
rest in. Me and Andrew had stayed at my Uncle's the previous
night in order to get an early start. |
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Staying
over was a very good idea. We were up by 5am, and out by 6am.
We started Great Northern at 6:15am. It was nice because it
was still relativley early when we got up to the cliffs so the
sun was not upon us yet. |
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There was
a while of where we walked along the the tops of hills before
we started to get into the real cliffs. Even from here the veiws
were spectacular. |
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We kind
of pushed hard up the steep beggining and then set an easy pace
with a few stops while going accross the hill tops. Not wanting
to wear out too much before the cliffs. |
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We kept
hoping to see some bears, or mountain lions, or other animals
while on this hike. It is in an area called The Great Bear Wilderness.
We found plenty of droppings along the pass, most likely from
a mountain goat. But never saw any animals. |
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As we got
higher into the cliffs the trail got thinner and more varied.
It even dissapeared at some points. The trick was to stay high.
We tried to on the way up, but did a much better job later,
on the way down. |
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Great Northern
had a glacier on the other side. I guess what makes a snow capped
mountain a glacier is that the snow has been there since prehistoric
times and never melted yet. |
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As we got
higher, onto the cliffs and knife edge, the path got very steep
at some points. As a good climbing rule, we put some distance
between each other. |
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There was
a lot of loose rock called Shale, which could easily start a
small avalanche. We wanted enough distance so that loose rock
falling down would not knock someone else off the slope. |
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There was
a really cool natural rock overhang partway up the mountain.
Could not go through though because of a vertical drop on the
other side. |
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There was
a rather good view of the reservior we went boating on. Day
2. This time instead of looking up at the mountain we were looking
down at the water. |
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It was
steep a good deal through this, but not the same as the beggining.
It was on the cliffs instead of in the forest, so a silp up
could be dangerous. This part we took very slowly and there
were even a few areas of hand over hand climbing up. |
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Me and
Andrew crawled down onto the glacier for this shot. There were
several areas where you could climb down to touch it. |
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At the
base of the glacier in the valley was a small pond. The blue
of the pond looked very unique although it's tough to see it
in the picture. |
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All in
good time we arrived at the top. It was quite a good feeling
to have reached the top of the mountain. |
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We stopped
for a while and ate some lunch. I even made a cell phone call
back to my Unlce's house letting them know we had made it. I
had to give my phone a minute, but I did have service. |
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There was
supposed to be a register in these rocks at the top. People
who climb up sign it. Unfortuneatley it was not there when we
got there. Probably last person up took it. |
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We ate
lunch on top. Mostly trail mix and granola bars. It was rather
windy, but we had come prepared with jackets and wind breakers.
After a while of sitting it started to get kind of cool. |
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I had found
a stick part way up on the cliffs. I loaned it to my uncle for
this shot. Lots of mountains in the background. |
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This on
the way up and down was one of the more difficult areas. Cause
it's hand over hand climbing down, and not always certain which
way is the best. A lot of drop offs. |
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We stayed
higher on the way back. Walking along the knife edge of the
cliffs, with nearly straight drops on both sides As andrew remarked,
a fall would be certain death on both sides for much of it;
and certain death on one and severe injury on the other for
the rest. |
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Kevin said
it would probably be fun to ski down the Glacier, but he probably
would never try cause he would probably get killed trying. |
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My camera
was starting to run out around this point and I had to go back
and delete a few previous pictures to fit in the last few. It's
too bad too, because there were a couple shots coming down I
would have liked to get. |
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On the
way down you can see the top of Great Norther (where we climbed
too) in the distance. |
