A cup of wild

Day 2 took us over Donohue pass and into the beautiful Lyell canyon We woke up to gorgeous skies on the second day, and started off to tackle Donohue Pass, our most elevation gain in a single day of the entire hike. The trail (which was more of a series of 50 foot muddy segments split by large patches of snow) began by descending toward a rushing river. After admiring many waterfalls, we reached a water crossing where we encountered a group (pack? school?) of PCT hikers, who splashed right through the cold water rather than finding the dry log bridge ...

A perfectly still and clear Thousand Island lake reflects Banner peak, and a thin sheet of ice remains on most of the lake. It's an odd experience to see so much ice and snow in summer weather - it was at least 70° while we were at the shore ...

At 10:30PM yesterday we left LA. We fell asleep under a blanket of stars in the Alabama hills and woke up with a view of Mt. Whitney. Our afternoon was hiking around some alpine lakes and climbing on the spectacular crystal crag, a 600 ft mini mountain. It's 9:45PM now and we have full bellies after a delicious dinner =) How could we possibly ask for more? ...

Mammoth is a pretty rad town - after a day of snowboarding, Alan joined me at the local crag for a few climbs. The approach was a casual three minute flip flop hike, and this was our beautiful view from the top of the wall! ...

This was our first trip to Zion National Park! It has been on Melanie's top 5 for ages and we finally made it - and boy did the park show us its best. Over the last four years, Melanie and I have done a decent amount of rock climbing. The goal is always up there. This was opposite day, with the prize down below and awesome rappels to reach them ...