Bill, Iris, and I went up to Mount Wallace on Saturday. We originally planned to try for Haeckel as well, but I was too slow for that itinerary to work, and we all wanted to avoid navigating down the ridge in the dark. I think they probably wouldn't have done it with the snow on the class 3 ledges anyway. We traveled about 7 miles to Moonlight Lake, dropped our packs, then went another 5 miles (roundtrip) to Mount Wallace. We used ice axe and crampons in the bowl below the tarn which sits between Wallace and Haeckel. I had never hiked with such fast hikers before so I learned a lot about my limits in terms of pace and also mental endurance. We were moving for about 13 hours, which is not my longest day ever, but I felt I pushed hard for the whole 13 hours to keep up with my incredible companions. They were wonderful... waiting for me, encouraging me to keep moving when they saw that I could, giving me constant verbal confirmation, joking and singing along the way, and basically refusing to split up. All in all, I think everyone enjoyed themselves, and I got an education too.
Moonlight Lake:
View of Hungry Packer Lake from our first climb up to the ridge above:
Echo Lake, 11602' still frozen:
View of Haeckel from the bowl below the tarn:
Bill's photo of the way up to Wallace from the tarn:
View of Haeckel and the tarn as we descend Wallace:
