Big Pine Valley, north fork trail head
Mountain to the south of the trail head
Starting our 6 mile hike to Temple Crag at 6pm
Glacier Lodge and South Fork of Big Pine Creek
Chasing the setting sun up the north fork
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2nd falls on the north fork
Our first glimpse of the 13k' crag from about 9k'
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Getting dark (this is a flash photo) but still pretty in the meadows
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8:30pm and still a long way to the base. We had to negotiate the 2nd lake crossing in the darkness of a new moon.
Ferocious locals
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Hiking up the scree field from lake two, I spotted a wild cat or black beer moving across the lower slope (lower left)
Our camp at lake 2 with lake 1 below it
Todd spotted two climbers on the Dark Star route
Climber in white, mid frame as we approach our route
Getting up through the ice was a PITA but we're now on the exposure below the Moon Goddess buttress
Gotta love that he is taking the tags off his new harness just as we change in to our climbing shoes at 11,200' (10AM)
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Check out how much the flake on the route has peeled back!
Toady practicing rapping off
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main
Venutian and Moon Goddess
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Almost back to camp
Strange place to put a dam
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From left to right, Venutian Blind, Moon Goddess, Sun Ribbon, Dark Star routes
No seriously, who the heck build a grated dam so high in the sierras?
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The grated spill-way outlet
I wanted to wade in there if we weren't in such a hurry to hike out
Lake 2 drainage in to lake 1, finding this route was a lot easier when it was light out
dork (with a 60+lb pack)
One of the more beautiful trails I've seen in the Sierras