Telescope Peak (10/28/07)

Write-up by Peter, pictures by George and JP

Without a doubt, it was the toughest hike of my life! About 12,000 feet of total elevation gain over 19 miles -- equivalent to hiking Mt. Sizer (creek to bench) 8 times back-to-back, at higher altitude and not on a maintained trail, with plenty of rocks, scree, and thorny bushes to make it a living hell. I averaged only 850 vertical feet/hour, 1.4 miles/hour from the valley floor to the peak. On the INCH scale, this ones rates a Level 8. Never again!

It was 75 degrees when we started the hike on the valley floor (253 feet below sea level) at 2:45 a.m.

Less than halfway up and I'm already in pain (Dave's loving it!)

Can you feel the joy? At this point I'm just hoping a wild animal will come along and eat me.

Rudi did an excellent job of finding trail all day, otherwise we'd still be out there

What's taking these guys so long? It was a cakewalk coming up the regular trail.

Dave didn't even break a sweat as he cruised in to the "T"

Finally, back to a real trail after 17 miles / 12 hours of cross-country!!!

At the peak (11049 feet above sea level) 13 hours after we started!

This shirt (courtesy of Rusty) says it all

For more great pix, check out George's trip album.