thompson peak |
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| intro
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i woke up just
past sunrise to hear tom stirring around camp. the salmon river valley was covered
with a blanket of fog, but otherwise we had clear skies. i loaded up on oatmeal, a
bagel and cheese, and 3 cups of hot cocoa. i packed a small bag with lunch, extra
clothing layers, first aid kit, and camera gear and we took off back up the hill. at
the smaller lake up above no-name lake, we veered to the left to take the opposite route
over the 100' wall.
before reaching the wall, we had to traverse some large snowfields. as neither of us had crampons (spikes attached to boots), our progress slowed a little bit at this point. we had to rely on footprints already made in the snow from previous hikers, or by kicking small steps into the hard snow.
the trail led up to a point where we could easily climb over the wall to the west face of thompson. here, another snowfield greeted us for a short distance, followed by the long ascent up the face of thompson across boulder fields and scree. reaching a saddle just below thompson, i again stopped for a breather as tom continued on towards the summit. after snacking, i pushed on. tom was out of sight, so i assumed he was standing on top. however, he had chosen a route bringing him around the northwest side of the summit which turned out to be a dead end (a 30' vertical face prevent him from going further). i had chosen a bee-line route to the top up through a narrow gully. the last 100 or so feet got very steep, but a few handholds later i reached.... |
