A Bunch of Hike Pictures and A Story to go with
Prezwoodz
Registered Users Posts: 1,147 Major grins
I Hope its ok to Post in this fashion! I always post pictures of the peaks and i figure you guys and gals might want to know what goes on in the average hike 
So Enjoy!
Cantata – 07/05/05 - 07/06/05
Elevation : 6391
Total Mileage hiked by me : 22 Estimated
The idea for Cantata came from my uncle Dano who had wanted to do this peak for some time. My other aunt and uncle, Shelly and Jack, were in town and wanted to do a hike and we figured that Eagle lake would be a great place for them to hike to even if they did not want to give the peak a go. Jack had become a little ill before the hike but remained a trooper and I would never have guessed he was even feeling uncomfortable! My cousin Jason also decided to go on the hike with us and to give the peak an attempt. We all met up at Dano’s house and went through the gear to split up some of the items to equalize the weight between us. After a good breakfast at the hands of master chef Dano we headed out for the peak. The trip in was pretty uneventful we hiked to the hut at Eagle Lake and then continued over ridge between Symphony Lake and Eagle Lake and hiked over the first mound ending the ridge. We camped below Point 4727 in a nice large bowl with several streams for drinking water. After setting up camp we decided to eat and this is where the first oops of the trip came from and it went about like this.
Dano: “So do you have the stove and fuel?”
Me: “I have the fuel…..but I don’t have a stove, your kidding right?”
Dano: “Do you really not have it?”
After searching through all the bags we find that we do not have a stove for anything. I had just lost my stove so decided not to bring it and since we brought extra fuel we decided not to bring the extra stove. After a bit of grunting we decided it was a cumulative effort which led to the leaving of the stove and shrugged it off as we filled out dehydrated meals with cold water. The weather was pretty good and the sky’s had there occasional showing of blue. The top flanks of Cantata were in the clouds but overall we had pretty good views, so we headed up. The first part of the hike from camp is really pleasant. There are no trails but the large gully heading up is quite pleasant without any really steep areas coming up to a ridge between Cantata and Point 4727. We followed the ridge along until we reached the base of Cantata in what was thought of as the Notch. The directions to the peak had been read out of 50 Hikes book and a few directions had been obtained by a member of the MCA who had previously climbed the peak but we were going to find out later that both had been misinterpreted. So as we thought we were supposed to do when we found the Notch we descended the peak and headed east along its southern slopes looking for a gully to head up. We traveled almost all the way to the ridge between Cantata and Calliope and we still had not seen any sort of solid gully we would feel good heading up. Choosing the best one we could find which had snow going for a good distance we headed up with mountain axes and no crampons. My cousin Jason had only been on two hikes before and we were a bit unsure of his abilities so we did not want to push him to hard. There were large crevasse on the sides of the snow bank we were going up where the rock had melted the snow deep and the river had cut through the bank. We climbed up a few hundred feet and I went ahead to scope the route to see if it got better since Dano was feeling a bit unsure about the route for Jason’s sake. I did some mixed climbing between the snow and rock and found that after a few hundred more feet the steep snow ended in a scree field and was hiking back down to Dano and Jason when I dislodged a few rocks. One of the rocks was pretty good size being 20 or 30 pounds and I yelled “ROCK” loud as is rolled down the snow field. They were off to the size though off of the snow field. The big rock that was traveling in a nice straight line down the snow field decided to turn suddenly and went right for them! Jason jumped out of the way but Dano was unable to as it slammed in the back of his leg.
Dano shook it off for a bit and we could tell that it really hurt. If the expressions didn’t show it than the scar sure did. After a few minutes Dano was still willing to give the peak a go and we headed up further. His leg was now less sure of its stepping and we were all a little more aware of what could happen. We hiked up a bit further and there was a small snow bridge over the creek. I figured it was better not to try and cross it so I hiked down and around and went to climb up the rock next to it. I placed my axe in the snow and it sank in to deep and I ended up sitting on the snow bridge. I could hear Dano saying “There it goes!” before I felt it move. It collapsed with me on it and threatened to bring me into a dark abyss following the creek under the snow. I was able to stay on top of it and come out alright a little excited that it had happened. It was a few minutes later we decided to turn around and abandon the peak. The hike back was a fun filled time with endless scree until we reached our notch. Dano was still hiking ok but was worried about stopping because his leg was threatening to lock up. We hiked back to the beginning ridge between point 4727 and Jason and I ran up to get the point so that we would not go home empty handed. We proceeded back to camp to eat the very cold dehydrated food than plopped down for the night.
The morning produced absolutely beautiful blue sky’s and made my interest in Cantata go right back up. After having read the 50 Hikes book myself that morning I figured I found out where we had went wrong and that I could get the peak now. Dano hobbled out of his tent at about 7am and I could see he was in no shape to take the peak. I asked my cousin Jason and got a sharp “No”. I had to talk myself into going up and told Dano I was going to turn around at 10am even if I had not attained the summit. They were going to leave about that time so it would give me a little time to catch up before they hiked all the way back to the car. I left camp and hiked back up to the ridge and hiked to the base of Cantata. I started straight up the West ridge from there instead of dropping down and climbed and bear crawled the next thousand feet until I came to the real Notch. From here I dropped down and headed east for a few gullies until I came up to a wide open scree field leading up. I headed right up the scree field until I came back to the summit ridge and headed to the summit. The views were incredible and there were hardly and clouds! I took tons of pictures and of course the summit shot of myself and headed back down at 9:26am. I made good time all the way back to camp retracting my steps as best I could and got to camp, packed, and headed out all by 11:15. The rest of the group had left at 9:30 so I had a lot of time to make up. When I was not jogging I was walking as fast as I could and after 3 miles I was feeling pretty good until I re-sprained my ankle that I had hurt in Thailand. This sent me flying to the ground and I knew it was bad. I tied an ace bandage as hard as I could around my ankle and got up and hobbled as fast as I could. Turning around i could see there were clouds above Cantata and thunder could be heard. I have no idea where that came from! I could not see any place from the top clouds could have rolled in from in two hours so i was pretty suprised. I caught a glimpse of the rest of the party at the Hidden Valley Bridge and when we got the cars they had just made it before me, almost all limping and everyone thankful to be at the vehicles.
Overall the trip was a success. The hospital visit and the air cast I now have to wear are unfortunate but I am glad to have obtained the peak. Thanks to Dano, Jason, Jack, and Shelly for the great trip!
Dano looking for Wildlife:
Here comes the pack:
Dan and Jason teeter by the Hut at Eagle lake
Heading up to base camp:
Coming down the Gully we first tried up.
Dano says "Calliope Does not look so bad"
Dano In front of Cantata
Ouch. The rock hits Dano
Hiking back up the Scree. There were amazing colors on this lake!
Another pic of this beautiful Lake - Anyone know the name of it?
A view from above camp.
On top of Point 4727
Views from On top of Cantata
Eagle Peak:
Me ontop of Cantata
So Enjoy!Cantata – 07/05/05 - 07/06/05
Elevation : 6391
Total Mileage hiked by me : 22 Estimated
The idea for Cantata came from my uncle Dano who had wanted to do this peak for some time. My other aunt and uncle, Shelly and Jack, were in town and wanted to do a hike and we figured that Eagle lake would be a great place for them to hike to even if they did not want to give the peak a go. Jack had become a little ill before the hike but remained a trooper and I would never have guessed he was even feeling uncomfortable! My cousin Jason also decided to go on the hike with us and to give the peak an attempt. We all met up at Dano’s house and went through the gear to split up some of the items to equalize the weight between us. After a good breakfast at the hands of master chef Dano we headed out for the peak. The trip in was pretty uneventful we hiked to the hut at Eagle Lake and then continued over ridge between Symphony Lake and Eagle Lake and hiked over the first mound ending the ridge. We camped below Point 4727 in a nice large bowl with several streams for drinking water. After setting up camp we decided to eat and this is where the first oops of the trip came from and it went about like this.
Dano: “So do you have the stove and fuel?”
Me: “I have the fuel…..but I don’t have a stove, your kidding right?”
Dano: “Do you really not have it?”
After searching through all the bags we find that we do not have a stove for anything. I had just lost my stove so decided not to bring it and since we brought extra fuel we decided not to bring the extra stove. After a bit of grunting we decided it was a cumulative effort which led to the leaving of the stove and shrugged it off as we filled out dehydrated meals with cold water. The weather was pretty good and the sky’s had there occasional showing of blue. The top flanks of Cantata were in the clouds but overall we had pretty good views, so we headed up. The first part of the hike from camp is really pleasant. There are no trails but the large gully heading up is quite pleasant without any really steep areas coming up to a ridge between Cantata and Point 4727. We followed the ridge along until we reached the base of Cantata in what was thought of as the Notch. The directions to the peak had been read out of 50 Hikes book and a few directions had been obtained by a member of the MCA who had previously climbed the peak but we were going to find out later that both had been misinterpreted. So as we thought we were supposed to do when we found the Notch we descended the peak and headed east along its southern slopes looking for a gully to head up. We traveled almost all the way to the ridge between Cantata and Calliope and we still had not seen any sort of solid gully we would feel good heading up. Choosing the best one we could find which had snow going for a good distance we headed up with mountain axes and no crampons. My cousin Jason had only been on two hikes before and we were a bit unsure of his abilities so we did not want to push him to hard. There were large crevasse on the sides of the snow bank we were going up where the rock had melted the snow deep and the river had cut through the bank. We climbed up a few hundred feet and I went ahead to scope the route to see if it got better since Dano was feeling a bit unsure about the route for Jason’s sake. I did some mixed climbing between the snow and rock and found that after a few hundred more feet the steep snow ended in a scree field and was hiking back down to Dano and Jason when I dislodged a few rocks. One of the rocks was pretty good size being 20 or 30 pounds and I yelled “ROCK” loud as is rolled down the snow field. They were off to the size though off of the snow field. The big rock that was traveling in a nice straight line down the snow field decided to turn suddenly and went right for them! Jason jumped out of the way but Dano was unable to as it slammed in the back of his leg.
Dano shook it off for a bit and we could tell that it really hurt. If the expressions didn’t show it than the scar sure did. After a few minutes Dano was still willing to give the peak a go and we headed up further. His leg was now less sure of its stepping and we were all a little more aware of what could happen. We hiked up a bit further and there was a small snow bridge over the creek. I figured it was better not to try and cross it so I hiked down and around and went to climb up the rock next to it. I placed my axe in the snow and it sank in to deep and I ended up sitting on the snow bridge. I could hear Dano saying “There it goes!” before I felt it move. It collapsed with me on it and threatened to bring me into a dark abyss following the creek under the snow. I was able to stay on top of it and come out alright a little excited that it had happened. It was a few minutes later we decided to turn around and abandon the peak. The hike back was a fun filled time with endless scree until we reached our notch. Dano was still hiking ok but was worried about stopping because his leg was threatening to lock up. We hiked back to the beginning ridge between point 4727 and Jason and I ran up to get the point so that we would not go home empty handed. We proceeded back to camp to eat the very cold dehydrated food than plopped down for the night.
The morning produced absolutely beautiful blue sky’s and made my interest in Cantata go right back up. After having read the 50 Hikes book myself that morning I figured I found out where we had went wrong and that I could get the peak now. Dano hobbled out of his tent at about 7am and I could see he was in no shape to take the peak. I asked my cousin Jason and got a sharp “No”. I had to talk myself into going up and told Dano I was going to turn around at 10am even if I had not attained the summit. They were going to leave about that time so it would give me a little time to catch up before they hiked all the way back to the car. I left camp and hiked back up to the ridge and hiked to the base of Cantata. I started straight up the West ridge from there instead of dropping down and climbed and bear crawled the next thousand feet until I came to the real Notch. From here I dropped down and headed east for a few gullies until I came up to a wide open scree field leading up. I headed right up the scree field until I came back to the summit ridge and headed to the summit. The views were incredible and there were hardly and clouds! I took tons of pictures and of course the summit shot of myself and headed back down at 9:26am. I made good time all the way back to camp retracting my steps as best I could and got to camp, packed, and headed out all by 11:15. The rest of the group had left at 9:30 so I had a lot of time to make up. When I was not jogging I was walking as fast as I could and after 3 miles I was feeling pretty good until I re-sprained my ankle that I had hurt in Thailand. This sent me flying to the ground and I knew it was bad. I tied an ace bandage as hard as I could around my ankle and got up and hobbled as fast as I could. Turning around i could see there were clouds above Cantata and thunder could be heard. I have no idea where that came from! I could not see any place from the top clouds could have rolled in from in two hours so i was pretty suprised. I caught a glimpse of the rest of the party at the Hidden Valley Bridge and when we got the cars they had just made it before me, almost all limping and everyone thankful to be at the vehicles.
Overall the trip was a success. The hospital visit and the air cast I now have to wear are unfortunate but I am glad to have obtained the peak. Thanks to Dano, Jason, Jack, and Shelly for the great trip!
Dano looking for Wildlife:
Here comes the pack:
Dan and Jason teeter by the Hut at Eagle lake
Heading up to base camp:
Coming down the Gully we first tried up.
Dano says "Calliope Does not look so bad"
Dano In front of Cantata
Ouch. The rock hits Dano
Hiking back up the Scree. There were amazing colors on this lake!
Another pic of this beautiful Lake - Anyone know the name of it?
A view from above camp.
On top of Point 4727
Views from On top of Cantata
Eagle Peak:
Me ontop of Cantata
My Pictures can be seen at http://prezwoodz.smugmug.com
I Live at http://www.alaskamountainforum.com
I Live at http://www.alaskamountainforum.com
0
Comments
A dazzling array of images!!!
Whew! I'm a bit stunned... I get out and hike every weekend (almost) and I love to record scenes along the way.
You did a fine job, my friend!
PEACE
AJ
Great report on an excellent adventure. The shots are awesome.
Bear
http://behr655.smugmug.com/gallery/2514206#132038106
Ian
SmugMug Technical Account Manager
Travel = good. Woo, shooting!
nickwphoto