This is a reanimation of the Vicaribus blog as lived by Miro Kazakoff and Ehren Foss in 2004 and 2005. The photos may be spotty.

The Way Under The Mountain

Posted by ehren

The trail followed St. Mary's Lake for a half mile, then tucked under the road and started up a vibrant and green valley to the east of GTTS Mtn. We made solid progress for a mile and a half, the trail switched back and started to climb, and at the second switchback we saw the route to Goat Mountain continuing on. The cloud deck was still far lower than even Goat Mountain's top (8,600 ft.), and we were feeling feisty, so we decided to try for Seiya Pass (?sp).

After another hour of steady climb with amazing views (in steady rain) we met the rear wall of the valley and started on a set of switchbacks to the pass. At first small here-and-there sections of the trail were snow covered, but the proportion of snow to navigable ground increased enough after a half hour of climbing that we abandoned the trail and started picking our way between clumps of rock in the direction that the pass might be. Partly by following the descending footprints of other hikers, and partly Because It's There, we were soon at the foot of a several-hundred-foot long patch of steep snow, the top obscured by swirling cloud.

After some minor slipping and sliding, and a few pauses for discussion on which way to proceed into the clouds, we stopped for apples and triscuits in an ineffective windblock, then continued up crumbly red rock another few hundred feet, the clouds got thicker, we found the trail again, and then it started to go down.

Not long after the pass we found the trail covered by one last steep snowpatch. Below the snow we could see cloud and what looked to be a cliff's edge. Our options, then, were to travel along the bottom or top of the snow, or to blaze a trail through the middle. Since other tracks went over the top, and we couldn't see any body-marks from sliding down over the cliff, we opted for the upper road. It was during this traverse that we paused to take some totally sweet hero pictures.

The trail soon dropped into another eerie valley, and stupidly we took the path instead of boot-skiing down a 200-foot long snowpatch. The rest of the hike was fast, wet, and gray, but very enjoyable. Instead of hitchiking from the Gunsight trailhead, and also due to some miscommunication about the distance remaining, we opted to hike the full loop along St. Mary's Lake back to the bus for a total of 15.3 miles in just over 6 hours. Annely, as we have learned this week, is indestructable. Today's hike put her 3-day total well over 40 miles. That night we played a short $1 buy-in game of poker and then I promptly passed out.