Excelsior Peak was not our original plan, but a sea urchin is to blame for the change in the destination and party size. We had hoped to climb Ruth Mt with the Palmers, it would be a sort of a celebration of our Mt Baker climb anniversary. If it were not for Erika having to have a sea urchin spine removed from her heel the day before, which she brought back form a trip to Hawaii! We decided it was best to let her heel heal, and postponed our Ruth Mt hike to when all four of us will be able to go. So the three of us headed to Excelsior Pass instead. It took a bit of bush whacking and orienteering on the snow covered terrain to find our way to the pass.
Eventually we got there and were rewarded with amazing views under a blue sky.
One more push to make it to the peak.
It was a steep climb . . .
. . . but our lunch just tasted so much better being savored at the top.
These guys plan on climbing a few mountains in the near future, so this was a perfect opportunity to practice and improve their techniques.
Here they are building a snow anchor (I think that's what it's called) for crevasse rescue and guess who was their guinea pig?
Yep, down I go on my first rappelling experience. I really do trust my husband and our good friend Craig! Of course it helped not having a steep rocky ledge bellow me.
Perfect conditions to practice self arrest.
And they lived happily ever after!
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