That was quite a trip! When Steve and I split up at 3:22 on Friday afternoon, there were a few dark clouds, and I had left my good headlamp at camp. (I had my crappy backup with me.) Glacier Ridge turned out to be mostly easy slabs. It went pretty fast except for the last couple of hundred feet. The class 4 summit block “required my full attention,” but the way up was obvious. I made it back to camp before I needed my headlamp. Steve had gone MUCH further to Triple Divide, and had climbed an hour past his “turnaround time.” He didn’t get to bed until well past 1:00 AM, so I didn’t have any luck convincing him to try again Saturday morning. He went fishing while I climbed Whaleback. The Jonah’s Joy route is pretty cool, but the route has tons of class 3 (mostly slabs) that take up time. We moved camp about seven miles after I got back to camp, and then hiked the rest of the way out yesterday. I estimate well over 50 miles and something like 13,500’ of gain. Not bad for a couple of old farts, one with plantar fasciitis and the other with a blown knee!
