EISPIRATEN

I had a very full weekend last week when i spent Saturday celebrating Tina's B-day on our hike of Russell and then after a surpising insomanical 1 hr of sleep Saturday night was able to meet Dave G and Phil (lik2hik) at Onion Valley and hike Dragon Peak (elev 12,995 feet) on Sunday. As luck would have it, i started a new and stressful consulting job on Monday and spent the whole week feeling like a zombie and as always wishing there was some way i could make a living by hiking and climbing. Real work sux. I'm not getting any significant adventures in this weekend so i am "living in the past" by posting my pix from last Sunday.

The "finally" in my title refers to the fact that Dave G and i tried to climb this peak in Sept 2008 but a wrong turn and little beta found us at the Golden Trout Lakes instead. Dave went back last October and snow thwarted his attempt, so this time we had a score to settle and with a great lead from Phil (he had slain this beast once before) we all attacked the Dragon and won! The talus slope (not scree) from Dead Mouse Lake burns a few calories and earns your respect and then you get to the fun part. Not knowing exactly where to go, we put our mountaineering thinking caps on and did some creative route-finding and enjoyed every challenge before us. Loose talus, chossy slopes, sticky slabs and traverses that almost made you cry "Mama!"

I had wanted to do this peak ever since i saw my first photo years ago of the infamous airy traverse under the summit. I was not disappointed but we all felt some of the stuff we climbed prior to that was definitely more challenging though it might not photograph as well. It was a very FUN day in the mountains and felt so good to hike once again with Dave & Phil as i had missed their company after spending the summer nursing my broken foot. Cheers my friends, the Dragon is slain!

Dead Mouse Lake and Dragon Peak (photo by Dave G)


Russell had the endless scree, today it's the endless talus (photo by Dave G)


Lots of fun scrambling


Phil on the airy traverse. I finally got to set my own eyes on it!


Not much margin for error


Have Dragon?... We'll slay!


We finished the hike with a foot soak in DM Lake and crossing a beautiful meadow ablaze in its fall color. ahh...


rest of my pix are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ryan.norma8 ... gTheDragon#

Looks like a REALLY nice outing. Except maybe that traverse.

HJ

WOW that airy traverse looks sick -- you rock!

I imagine St. George himself would be pleased to hear that the dragon is finally slain
Fun hike--not nearly as scary or as difficult as the photos would suggest. Thanks again for the lead, Phil!

Yikes! Those pix are enough to keep me from even thinking about doing that one Congratulations on both your mountaineering achievements, and getting back into the realm of the employed. Work really intereferes with fun.

Nice work Norma, on one hours sleep that could not have been an easy day, congrats on being back to work - sorry it's going to get in the way of your hiking career

Dave and Phil it was good to see you guys in Lone Pine and laugh about the fun we've all been having, see you on the next one.

I sure would like to see the rest of that "exposure" that Phil is crossing in person, would be nice to do that myself - I'll have to wait for next season.

Great shots Norma