The Summit Hut

The large summit plateau. The view of the Sierras was breathtaking. Going down took a long time, belayed lowering to the notch, some plunge stepping down the chute, postholing past Iceberg Lake- the least fun of the route, a little glissading (sliding down on snow), we finally made it to camp at Upper Boyscout Lake around 5PM making it an 11 hour round trip. I was immobile for a couple hours but finally perked up after a lot of hot liquids and food. We left the next morning, the hike down to the trailhead was smooth and took about 4 hours. Even though I trained very hard for this trip, running, weights, hiking with a pack, I still underestimated the difficulty of this route. Apparently the most direct route up a mountain is also the hardest. A few days hiking at altitude before actually climbing would have made the trip a lot easier. My lungs never really complained but my legs were mad as hell. You can't over train for a route like this, I'm glad I did it, but it was not easy.