2007 Mt. Massive Hike

Yet another picture of the outcrop.

The route to the summit passes between two imposing outcrops, forming a natural gate opening onto the saddle.

With a good running start, you could do a thousand-foot dive off this slab of rock. Once, anyway.

The view from the peak was a little disappointing -- looking south and west, it was a landscape of undifferentiated snow-capped peaks as far as the eye could see. The view from the saddle was much more interesting. This is looking east from the saddle, over the standard trail.

Looking southeast from the saddle.

The view from the summit over a false summit to the northwest. Note the blurry veils of falling snow -- luckily, it was sublimating before it ever reached our altitude.

Looking back down our trail along the summit ridge. It wasn't quite as dodgy as it looked, but we did drop down to the left on our return to the saddle instead of retracing our steps, so as to avoid having to go over the unsettling first false summit again.

View from the summit, looking west over Mt. Oklahoma and the Half-Moon Lakes. Note the veil of falling snow...the sudden appearance of these veils was a sign that it was time to go back down.

Mt. Massive is appropriately named -- these are all lesser summits of what is regarded as one mountain.