I asked ‘Brando’ if he wanted to do it, and he said ‘Sure, sounds like fun’. However, bad weather conditions or prior commitments prevented us from going in the dead of winter (probably a good thing). We’ve had a lot of rain this season, and fresh snow would have made it quite treacherous, so I waited for a weekend where it hadn’t snowed in a week or so to give it a chance to pack and harden.

This relatively strenuous hike is approximately 7 miles round trip starting out at an elevation of about 6000′ with the summit a little over 10,000′. The weather can change very quickly and be quite different at the summit than lower down.

Part of my motivation for these hikes is to try out different gear, of course, and see how it performs. Here’s a list of some of the gear I brought along that’s featured elsewhere on this site:

• Zensah tactical tights and tactical mock turtleneck, skull cap and neck gaiter.
• OrcInd PCU Level 5 Pants (no longer available) and OrcInd MCU Level 5 jacket (virtually identical to their PCU L5 jacket).
• TADgear soft shell hoodie
• Insport PCU L3 half-zip pullover (I brought this along but never broke it out)
• Hanwag Mountain Light boots from Lathrop and Sons, and Smartwool socks
• Kifaru Express pack, with 100oz bladder, food, small med and emergency kit etc.
• Revision Sawfly glasses
• High Speed Gear tactical hat

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