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Desolation Wilderness, California (click on any photo for a full-sized version)
"How About the Crystal Range?" I'd love to say we skied the Crystal Range because we were ambitious. In reality, we wound up there because we were just lazy -- not wanting to drive all the way down to Tioga Pass for just a one-day trip, we settled for less driving (and, of course, less snow). Originally, we wanted to hit Mt. Conness for our annual season-ending chute skiing trip. But since the Saddlebag Lake Road was closed, I had suggested to Chris that we hit the Dana Couloir. Chris had other plans. "How about the Crystal Range?", he asked. The Crystal friggin' Range?
Was he serious? It was an honest
and simple inquiry, but it had suffering written all over
it. Closer to home, the Crystal Range caps the western
half of Lake Because we are both desk jockeys in our "real" lives, we decided to hike into a bivy site at Ropi Lake in the dark on Friday night after work. This wouldn't be a long hike -- about 2 1/2 miles and 1,500' of climbing -- but it would involve a steep rock scramble up the cliffs to the left side of Horsetail Falls. People have died trying to get up these falls, and there have been countless rescues conducted here. Well, at least we had a full moon, right? So Friday night we hiked up
the falls in the dark. The hike was spectacular.
Full moon rising over Mt. Ralston, the falls were absolutely
nuking, and the bugs were scarce. We made our way up the
cliffs and talus
Now that we were wandering aimlessly in the flats though dense trees and around tarns and small streams, our chances of getting utterly lost were rapidly approaching 100%. We finally decided to call it quits for the night when we inadvertently stumbled out onto a razor-thin peninsula jutting into Ropi Lake. With water on all three sides of us, Chris confidently pronounced that we had found the lake. "Let's camp here". I didn't protest. We hunted around the rocks and found a flat spot just large enough to accommodate two sleeping bags. Soon thereafter, we were fast asleep. (camping tip: when sleeping without a tent on full moon nights, bring a multi-purpose bandana to tie around your head like a blindfold to block the moonlight).
photo: Rich admiring Horsetail Falls in the last light of day
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