The crack of noon club, consisting of Me and Lynn, had a great day up on Pioneer Peak, despite being in the clouds all day. Usually being in the clouds involves at the very least a pervasive mist, if not full on rain, but it was remarkable how dry and windless the clouds were all day. On the way up the clouds cleared for about 5 minutes and we got this beautiful view....we kept hoping the blue hole would travel over us....but it never happened.
I have to say Pioneer is one of my favorite Peaks, I feel like I say that about a lot of mountains, but Pioneer is just super fun. Its a big elevation gain because you start right at sea level, and then the upper ridge is straight from a Fantasty book, I kept thinking about Orks, and Mordor the whole way up....there are sections that you see from a distance and think, no way do i want to scramble up that steep crumbly rock, but the closer I get, little passageways in the rock open up like dwarves themselves came and carved stairs.....well maybe not that great but.....good.
I'm trying out this new slideshow feature from Picassa, anyone have any comments? Does it take forever to load? Would you rather see a couple pictures then sit through a whole menagerie?
Pioneer is 6,350 ft, my tech watch said I gained 6,980 ft, over 9 hours, walking about 12 miles...definitely could have been done faster, but there was no reason to hurry and lots of reasons to sit and chat. I wore my hrm, and I couldn't get my hr above 160, and felt maxed out at 140, which is really low for me. Was still a bit worked from Bold the day before....Great day out!!!
