SUMMIT DAY (fremont peak-- 13,745 feet)

wow, we look fairly awake for it being 4:30 in the morning!!! it's not really safe to be on a summit past noon, so you need to get an early (really early) start in order to get up and off by noon.

a few benefits for waking up that early... 1, it's cooler temps, and 2, you get to watch an incredible sunrise as you hike up!!!
fremont peak, looming ahead of us.

this is the group of us on the saddle... the saddle was a hard place to get to, but we had NO idea how physically demanding the last 2000 feet we had remaining would be...
amazing view... you can see i have a jacket around my waist: layers were constantly going on, coming off, and going back on again because we'd get hot hiking, and then stop for a break, like at the saddle, and the temps would be really cold and the wind would be blowing... shortly after this pic, i put my jacket, hat and gloves back on (which came off about 200 feet up the summit)

that is summerice lake... we were going to pack about 3 miles from our camp to this lake after our summit, but we were so exhausted, so we just stayed put for the night.

now the next few are summit pictures... after a full morning with over 3000 feet in elevation gain, we made it to the summit... it took some crazy scrambling to get to the top... hand over feet hiking, or 4th class stuff... 5th class is climbing with ropes, if that gives you an idea of what 4th class is. however, once we got to the summit, the other side of the peak was a sheer overhanging rock face, dropping down to one of the largest glaciers... fremont glacier. it's huge!

here's the group of us, stinkin cold, but so amazed at the fact that we were at the top... incredible view, incredible feeling being that high... you could see well over 400 miles in each direction.

this is my "normal" summit pic... you guys already saw my fun thumbs-up one... ins't that glacier awesome!



another cool shot from the top!

isn't that amazing?!?!?!

getting down was a whole deal... as we said, the summit was only halfway, we still had to get back down and back to camp... no elevators or anything :)

this is one of the less steep spots, but you could imagine going up that...

so yes, those are the summit pictures... one of the coolest things i've ever experienced... definietly an acomplishment on the group's part. and when we all got to the top, there was this metal tube (which you see to the right in this epic picture) that has a bunch of summit journals that you get to sign. so, each of us signed, and all our names are now sitting at the top of fremont peak, 13,745 feet above the world.

:)