11:30 lazy start to Ptarmigon Cirque trail 12:00 half way point on trail 12:30 tons of scree (stable) 12:50 at rock slab near col, scree worse up here 1:05 - aprox 5m from top, scared, 3-wide shot, descending 1:15 flow picture, only green thring around, descent is easy enough 2:00 back at trail end by waterfall 2:20 talking to couple with 5 year olds pictres at waterfall, finished roll, film not winding, backtracked to get pictures again 3:30 back at car 3 pics at interpatative hike
This is nearly the end of the trail and the first view is looking back while the
second looks ahead to the start of the scramble.
Once you've followed the trail over the scree and around the bend and started to
gain height in ernest here is a view looking back towards the snowfield which feeds
the small river at the trail end.
Here is the crux of the climb. If you make it up this you are on the col and have
a clear shot at the peak (from what I've read). The slope gets increasingly steep
and the scree gets smaller and less stable. Eventually I aimed for the rocky
outcropping that you can see towards the right. I estimate that I was within 5m
of gaining the col when I decided to turn. Once again, doing this as a solo climb
and finding myself having gone 30 min. nearly always using my hands unnerved me
enough to make me back out.
In hindsight the descent was nowhere near as bad as I figured it would be. However
I would have been much more comfortable if someone had gained the col and had a
rope on me!
This was the view from as high as I went on up to the col.
Here are the views from the descent. It is amazing that in such a rocky and barren
place you can have flowers growing.
Right now I'm at the end of the offical trail. You can see the trail comeing upone side of the valley; and returning by the other. The peak in the distance is also
a scramble.
