Lace 'em up and hike!

This past weekend was probably the hiking culmination of the summer, with Paul and I completing our 4x4 over the 4th adventure, hiking the four major peaks around Juneau on four consecutive days. Wednesday was Mt. Roberts, Thursday Mt. McGinnis, Friday Heintzleman Ridge/Thunder Mountain, and Saturday Mt. Juneau. It was over 25 miles of hiking, with 13000 vertical in total. There were certainly many sore muscles afterward, along with some fun jokes, and all in all, it was totally worth it. First, Mt. Roberts!

This hike took us about 5 miles and up 3400 feet vertical. We hiked it in beautiful weather, with sunny skies and temperatures reaching into the 70's. The nice weather also brought out a lot of people to the trails, and we came across some para-gliders:

Unfortunately we couldn't summit due to unstable snow conditions, but we did get up to the top of Gastineau mountain. The views up there are outstanding looking back towards the Perseverance trail, and there was all sorts of fun stuff to climb out on :-)

However, our friend triple-M (Marathon Marmot of the Mountain) showed both Paul and I up by climbing all over the cornice and up to the top of Mt. Roberts. Regardless, he was still fun to see:

Day 2 (Thursday) brought us up Mt. McGinnis, which is in my view the hardest of the four mountains. This trail starts on West Glacier Trail, and then proceeds up the Mt. McGinnis trail. This hike was about 3100 vertical where we stopped, as unstable snow conditions restricted our summit. This hike was the hike where we reached the point of hiking stupidity...and then went past it for a bit. However, the views were way worth it, and for what it's worth, we didn't try to summit because the people with ice axes and crampons were having to switchback up to the top. Regardless, Mt. McGinnis gives some excellent eye candy around the Mendenhall Glacier:

Although we couldn't make it to the top of Mcginnis, it was quite smart of us to turn around, as no view is worth the risk of such a decision. However, after two near misses with making it to the top, there was no doubt in our mind that we had to make it to the top of something, and Heintzleman Ridge provided just that opportunity. This hike began a bit later in the day given the amazing 4th of July activities (echo echo echo echo echo!), and provided quite the challenge in itself, with another 3000 vertical feet covered. This hike, which moved along to Thunder Mountain, provided a view of the Mendenhall Glacier that I've never seen before, and what a view it was:

We did find some unstable snow conditions, but luckily we were still able to continue around them rather than over them:

Thunder Mountain also provided some outstanding views of the valley, which got me all the more excited for Mt. Juneau the next day:


Mt. Juneau was another one of the 'big hikes', with about 3600 vertical over a 2.5 mile hike, including a final 1000 ft ascent which is basically a big scramble straight up-gradient. This hike went faster than expected, with Paul and I covering the hike up about 1 hour faster than last year, which we attribute to being hungry and wanting lunch :-) The views from Mt. Juneau of both the city, as well as to the north and south along the inner channels, are absolutely amazing, and are completely worth the difficulty getting up there:

Many fun pictures were taken with Paul's ice ax, and at the end, we felt like acting like the mountain goats. An excellent adventure it was, but one that may not be repeated any time soon :-)

Be sure to check out the rest of my pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/rockygolf87