So; Tom Wade and Wade's neighbor Kirk and I had a great tour this Saturday to Reynolds peak just west of dog lake.
A view of Reynolds peak from the spruces parking lot
We met up at 7:45 and were on the trail-head at precisely 8:14 and a bit. We started at the spruces because if you start on the East side of the canyon where the cabins are you gain elevation much more gradually. We got up to the lake at about 11:00, where we met a dad and his kids out for a winter camp. Cool.
Note to self. Remember to take my kids winter camping (eventually)
After the easy peasy climb to dog lake (excepting that last half a mile push) we had a snack and hit the real climbing. We opted for the direct route up the rise in the hill as opposed to going all the way around and climbing the ridge with its native rise. It turned out to be a good choice...though it was a tough climb.
Tom and friends (?) high on the ridge.
And looking ahead to the rest of the hike.
Here is wade and tom, same angle, but with more perspective.
At the top we took a long break to take in the views. Boy, what great views! Here is lookind down canyon at (from left to right) Raymond and Goblers knob.
Raymond is a great hike, but to easterly for good snow most of the time
Skiing the North East face was much more pleasant in terms of snow quality that i had been expecting. As you can see, it was pretty warm out there and i was worried that the face would have received too much sun to be any good. I was wrong, it was great.
Here is Wade showing off his bright new anti-camouflage.
And again on the lower slopes.
Sorry to the other skiers, seems like the only non-blurry pictures were of wade. probably because the camera auto-focus had no trouble tracking his jacket.
So i had my GPS running but it ran out of batteries or turned itself off about half way. So my stats are from google earth and Kirks watch. According the the watch we gained ~2100 feet in just under 3 miles going up.
And it tooks us until 12:30 to get back to the car. for a total tour time of about 4 hours and 15 minutes. Of course, we spent at least half an hour on top admiring the beauty. here is another shot to top it all off.
Yeah, it was a great day in the ol' Wasatch, but it almost always is.
*No video this week, my GoPro case broke on the pink pine outing and wasn't in the mood to lug the video camera and support up on this one. I should have as it was a nice light hike....oh well. Enjoy the pictures!
