This is my buddy’s shot of us headed up to Armstrong Col, sunlit in the low notch above. tx JR.
Rising above the Owens Valley, our skins got wet climbing in the low elevation sun down in the high desert sage, and then froze when we climbed into the shadow, glomming onto our skin plush. Here my buddy has had to stop to scrape off his skins, again. This sport is hard, and we sort of thrive on the toil and frustrations, but sometimes it gets a bit too exquisite, gratuitously so, like borderline mockery, and we just have to laugh along, or say, not today.
View from above the col (which is a high pass or ridge crossing) from 12,100′ on the Pacific Crest, looking down at craters and lava flows in the Owens Valley 8,000′ below. Looks like the Bighorns know this crossing too.
Colosseum Pk. 12,450′, and distant Inyo Mtns
Mt. Cedric Wright 12,339′
Looking west down Woods Creek flowing to the great canyon of the South Fork of the Kings River, twenty miles across the rugged wild Sierra to the nearest road. Looks from these tracks like that band of Bighorn Sheep we saw yesterday nearby, likely passed through here too?
This shot of Armstrong Col was taken the following morning 2-17-2010
Armstrong Col in low notch at left. This shot was taken the following morning 2-17-2010