The Great Range (Part 3) - Armstrong

The climb from Upper Wolfjaw to Armstrong proved to be difficult. This portion of the trail had some steep rocky sections to navigate, including one 30+ foot rock face with a ladder placed to help in the climb. This trail, difficult when dry, was now covered in ice and snow -- and of course we didn't have crampons. We struggled our way slowly up, mostly by hanging onto overhanging branches and nearby trees to pull ourselves up the ice. There were only a few places where this wasn't feasible. Here, we had to make a few jumps and hope for the best. This was one place where our lighter packs certainly helped out.

At this point, we were absolutely certain we weren't going to be climbing all the peaks we had planned. The snow and ice made the climb dangerous without crampons. We all agreed there was no reason for us to be up there any longer than necessary. We could do the other mountains another time. However, giving up and heading back to camp wasn't exactly an easy task. We were about halfway through the loop now -- past the point of no return. It would be shorter to continue up over Gothics and back.



One section of snowy trail between Upper Wolfjaw and Armstrong. We didn't get any pictures of the difficult portions of the climb. We were too busy trying not to slide down sheets of ice. (5/6/06, 1:51 p.m.)







Us on the summit of Armstrong. This captures the moment quite well. (5/6/06, 2:27 p.m.)







A temporary break in the clouds gave us a mostly clear view of Gothics from the summit of Armstrong. Gothics is one of the more impressive looking peaks with its bare-rock faces. (5/6/06, 3:10 p.m.)




Another shot of Gothics from our momentary break in the clouds. (5/6/06, 3:10 p.m.)