Galena Peak

Although I have been out a few times, and we have been doing some hiking, this was our first big peak for the year as a family. And it was a good challenge.

We parked the car at about 7600', although we probably could have driven further. It was a 20 minute warm-up getting to this point. The "trail" goes up the bare ridge on the left...straight up!

If your eyes are sharp, you soon pick up an ancient trail leading through the woods to some old mines high on the ridge. We were able to follow this trail to timberline.

At timberline, it's a short bushwhack to the top of the west ridge, and the route stays on the top of the ridge from here until the summit.

The going is not difficult, but it is steep. And early in the year, it seems doubly so.

It was also blowing pretty hard, so it was cold.

As you go higher, the ridge becomes very scenic and alpine.

The last part of the route (no, not this picture) involved traversing across snow with huge cornices and some pretty good exposure. The girls were scared. But the actual angle of the snow wasn't too bad.

However, the wind on top was screaming. We had to hang onto each other to keep from being tipped over. Note jasmine's hair. It was also very cold- Julie insisted her nose was being frostbitten.

Needless to say, our stay on top was *very* short.

It was an eight hour hike by the time we got back to the car, and we were all pretty tired.

Jasmine couldn't quite make it.