Russet Lake (2007.07.28)
Three days at the Himmelbach Hut, scrambling up Whirlwind and Fissile peaks.
Due to a VOC-house party Friday, we left Vancouver a little late Saturday morning, arriving at the Whistler gondola at noon instead of the 10am we originally planned.
It was fairly cloudy at the top of the gondola, spitting rain once in a while as we hiked past Picollo and over Flute. The clouds started to break up for lunch on Oboe. Lunch consisted of nutella spread onto <a href="/2007/07_russet/IMG_7570">just about everything</a> (that's a gummy bear and red pepper).
On Sunday we started hiking up to Whirlwind hoping to continue to Overlord if the weather cleared up. While hiking up the ridge Agathe wasn't feeling great and decided to turn around before it was too late. Agathe had an excellent slide down the ridge as Grant and I continued up the ridge and into the clouds. We soon reached the peak <a href="/2007/07_russet/IMG_7621">in the clouds</a> and agreed it wasn't worth continuing to Overlord.
On Monday Grant and I decided to go up Fissile peak. The weather had cleared up overnight and actually cooled down enough to freeze the snow patch we were planning to go up. We initially started up the icy snow until we saw what became <a href="/2007/07_russet/IMG_7697">the crux</a> of the hike up. After the crux/scramble it was easy hiking up a ridge and across to the high point on the west side. We had a good view of <a href="/2007/07_russet/IMG_7714-16">Overlord</a> and the <a href="/2007/07_russet/IMG_7704-06_09-10">glacier</a> below us. And I played around with autostitch <a href="/2007/07_russet/IMG_7714-18">too much</a>. Unsure about the icy-ness of the snow patch, we decided to take the scree route down. Taking the scree turned out to be a mistake, it took way longer and once we reached the snow it was nice and slushy anyway.
After arriving back at the hut we packed up and took the wheelchair accessible singing pass trail out. While hiking down I have further proven
Due to a VOC-house party Friday, we left Vancouver a little late Saturday morning, arriving at the Whistler gondola at noon instead of the 10am we originally planned.
It was fairly cloudy at the top of the gondola, spitting rain once in a while as we hiked past Picollo and over Flute. The clouds started to break up for lunch on Oboe. Lunch consisted of nutella spread onto <a href="/2007/07_russet/IMG_7570">just about everything</a> (that's a gummy bear and red pepper).
On Sunday we started hiking up to Whirlwind hoping to continue to Overlord if the weather cleared up. While hiking up the ridge Agathe wasn't feeling great and decided to turn around before it was too late. Agathe had an excellent slide down the ridge as Grant and I continued up the ridge and into the clouds. We soon reached the peak <a href="/2007/07_russet/IMG_7621">in the clouds</a> and agreed it wasn't worth continuing to Overlord.
On Monday Grant and I decided to go up Fissile peak. The weather had cleared up overnight and actually cooled down enough to freeze the snow patch we were planning to go up. We initially started up the icy snow until we saw what became <a href="/2007/07_russet/IMG_7697">the crux</a> of the hike up. After the crux/scramble it was easy hiking up a ridge and across to the high point on the west side. We had a good view of <a href="/2007/07_russet/IMG_7714-16">Overlord</a> and the <a href="/2007/07_russet/IMG_7704-06_09-10">glacier</a> below us. And I played around with autostitch <a href="/2007/07_russet/IMG_7714-18">too much</a>. Unsure about the icy-ness of the snow patch, we decided to take the scree route down. Taking the scree turned out to be a mistake, it took way longer and once we reached the snow it was nice and slushy anyway.
After arriving back at the hut we packed up and took the wheelchair accessible singing pass trail out. While hiking down I have further proven
