Some photos from our latest hike (photos from the city hike to come tomorrow night)...

This is the 'far off' shot of East End of Rundle (EEOR). We started at the road on the bottom (if you squint carefully, you can see cars there). Our destination was beyond the peak in the middle, up in the clouds. (This shot was taken after the hike)

This shot was taken looking across the valley, at Ha Ling (Chinaman's) Peak. We were going to ascend this peak as well, but the weather turned on us, so we couldn't.

I had to sepia-tone this shot... Kirsten just looked too much like a 1920s mountaineer NOT to. This was taken shortly after the above photo, about a third of the way up EEOR. In reality, Kirsten was getting ticked off at the fact I was stopping every 15 minutes to 'take photos' (read: stop and catch my breath). This was her "would you hurry up and start hiking again?" stance.

In this photo, you can also spot Kirsten sporting one of our trekking poles. These were very thoughtfully given to us by our friends Aida, Pam and Igor for my birthday. We had no idea how practical and beneficial they would turn out to be. Now, we can't think of hiking without them.

None of the shots ascending the crux of EEOR turned out, sadly - this was the best of them. But here's a mental image for you. Take a football field of football-sized rocks, and place it at a 45 degree angle. Do that 10 times. This is somewhat akin to the crux of EEOR.

If you look very closely at this photo, you can see a blue smudge in the center of the photo. This is the pond we parked beside. At the top right of it is our car. Can you see it? I barely could, even with the telephoto lens. :)

Moving on...

This is the Uszkalo-Harkness Commemorative Cairn, placed at the edge of the alpine forest portion of EEOR. It shall serve generations as a guiding post to let them know they're on the right track!

Finally, the view from the top of EEOR, looking down. Eek. The end of EEOR could literally be your end if you're not paying attention. The trail peaks at the edge of a 3000' cliff face. The look down still gives me the willies! (Note that this is looking STRAIGHT DOWN).

This is the only shot we have of West Wind Pass. This was supposed to be an easy hike for us, taken the same day as EEOR (which was a challenging hike, according to the guide book).

How true the name was, we had no idea. This photo it taken near the top of the West Wind Pass. If you look just above my head, you'll see a lone pine tree. As we moved over top the ridge that pine is sitting on, the wind started picking up.... then it started snowing. Then the wind picked up even more.

We quickly moved from a light drizzle and a soft breeze to light hail being driven at us (from the West, of course) by hurricane force winds. We were soaked within 5 minutes, and freezing cold.

My knees and ankles also started hurting shortly afterward, leaving me hobbling down the relatively easy pass. It was not my finest moment. :)

All in all, however, a good day of hiking was had. EEOR is a superb hike, with challenging scramble.