Luckily, the rain stopped overnight to motivate us to live up to the 6am departure time we’d set. Kevin was able to get us up to nearly 11,000 feet on the road to Little Giant Basin. I began to wonder if there were any ethics involved in climbing the 13′ers. Was there a 2,000 foot rule like the “standard” of having to climb at least 3,000 feet to gain a 14′er? Sarah quickly set me straight – there are no ethics on 13ers.
Since we were following a good road higher to the basin, I could practically sleep walk the next 20 minutes. That’s about when I realized I really could use a nap or some more sleep. So I tried to keep to the back of the group where I could just follow and not have to think.
We passed some interesting mining structures and a lake working on melting out, but couldn’t see the peaks above us to have a good idea of where to go.
We decided to head steeply uphill and catch a barely visible path that seemed to head for the saddle and avoid some steep snow fields.
Once we hit the mining trail we could easily follow it to the saddle and then partway around a false summit on Little Giant Peak.
Eventually the GPS units told us we were pretty much below the peak. Kevin lead us through the rime ice encrusted rocks to the summit.
The group decided to head over to unranked King Solomon Mountain and I realized that I was still very tired. Still, I followed and tried to pay extra attention to my steps since I didn’t feel very alert.
Kevin told us a bit about King Solomon but I think misquoted Song of Songs with the line “thy bosom like a gazelle”. GPS elevation readings confirmed that Solomon was an unranked peak (less than 300 feet of rise) and we headed directly down to the lake.
The clouds had started to lift a bit and we finally had a view of Little Giant across the basin.
Kevin, Sarah and Dwight were planning on moving to another basin and climbing an unnamed 13,000 foot peak. Since our return route was taking us near camp, I asked for the keys to Sarah’s vehicle and then to be let out with a quarter mile walk back to lunch and a nap that I sorely needed. Dwight lobbied for the whole group to stop at camp so he could make a sandwich, a request summarily denied by Sarah. Dwight said he hoped I’d enjoy a nice lunch as I left the car so I talked up the double-decker sandwich I’d create and consume shortly.
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