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so last weekend was pretty intense. in short, I found myself sleeping 3 nights at sub-freezing temperatures, waking up with chunks of ice in my Nalgene bottle, bagging a 13000′ peak in the sierras and randomly running into an old friend - and all the while, being surrounded by the incredible scenery just north of Yosemite.

More photos …

Friday morning, we woke up at a random campsite we had driven to at 1AM, made an omlette breakfast and packed up for our hike to base camp for our climb up Mt. Dana on Saturday. On my way to the bathroom in the morning, I saw this girl and I though to myself “awesome, girls that camp” but when I got closer, all I heard was a slew of profanity and the realization that it was my old family friend Elina. talk about small world. ‘el mundo es un panuelo’

we hiked up to dana lake below the summit of mt dana to camp for the night. the winds were gusty but didn’t seem too much of a problem. it was the scrambling over the billions of odd-sized loose rocks and the occasional snowpatch that were the biggest hurdles. by the time we reached our campsite, the wind had picked up and it was cooooooold.

that night, it wasn’t easy sleeping. it snowed.

Saturday
saturday was a rather chill day despite waking up to about an inch of powder covering everthing and attempting to move around in the still freezing temperatures. After a slow start, we ended up finding a campsite at a lower altitude and had lots and lots of time to kill. so I read a book for a bit, took photos of the numerous lakes around, took a nap, and just sat around and enjoying the very things that make california so great.

Sunday .. peak day
Hiking from 11000′ to 13000′ was a difficult challenge and I was definitely feeling the pain from the lack of oxygen. it was very reminiscent of whitney in my younger years =) but I was soon realizing more and more that I was pretty out of shape. we eventually made it to 13053′ and hung out up there for awhile, signing the summit log, finishing the rest of our food and enjoying the amazing 360 degree view of the earth - surrounded by mono lake, the edge of yosemite and many other lakes and mountains of the sierras. an awesome sight.

~ by kahunamike on October 12, 2005.