Mount Ray

Well with C-511's departure on Saturday morning, things were sadly a bit quieter around Lake Hoare this weekend.  Some of us were feeling well rested Sunday morning, so we rallied for a hike to the top of Mount Ray, which is the mountain that Lake Hoare Camp resides under.

Perfect hiking weather.

I was a little nervous about the weather as we headed out.  As you looked up the mountain we were hiking it was socked in about half way up, and there weren't any signs of the weather changing.  It looked like a pretty grueling hike just to get to the top and have 100 yds. of visibility.  I think we all just assumed  that the weather wouldn't do that to us after putting in all the hard work.  The first half of the hike was pretty windy and chilly, and the wind only got worse as we hiked into the clouds.

Forrest contemplates the meaning of life, as we begin to break out of the clouds.

It isn't a very long hike, but it is pretty strenuous, with 4500 ft of elevation gain over about 2 miles.  We hiked and bouldered our way up to the top at around 1:40 PM.  Well I guess it wasn't the true peak.  The true peak was a couple hundred feet higher, and on the other side of a big ice field.  But we still were able to capture a pretty killer view.

Above the sea of clouds.

The way down wasn't as harsh as I thought it would be.  We did however make a slight navigational error.  When we hiked back down and got into the clouds it was hard to see where we were going.  We just followed the ridge line we were on because it was the same one we used to get up.  The only thing is, while we were in the clouds we didn't see that our ridge line split into two separate ridges. The one to the right was the one that we took up, while the one to the left took us to the ice falls on Canada Glacier.  You can guess which one we took.  It wasn't too costly of a mistake, and honestly we may have accidentally shaved some time off of our hike, and almost certainly saved some strain on our knees.

By the time we returned, the clouds that had hung around the mid-section of Mount Ray all day had finally burned off.  All of a sudden I was nice and warm with the sun shining on me.  I felt great after that hike.  I of course was oblivious to the fact that I would remain sore from the hike for what is now going on two days.  All in all it was a great day to be out with some even greater company.

Ice Falls on Canada Glacier.