Hike up Falcon Ridge

I escaped the lab this past Sunday to go for a hike up Falcon Ridge, so named after a supposedly falcon-like rock on the top of the ridge. It was a beautiful day, without a cloud in the sky. However, the wind was not with us one bit throughout the day, and we spent some time fighting off the bugs. We started the hike following the rive up-valley to a saddle in the ridge, where we climbed up steep slopes of skree. It was a bit treacherous going, since many of the rocks were unstable and I was scared that I would step on something really loose and end up careening down to the bottom of the mountain. However, with only minor stumbles and falls we made it up to the ridge and began our ascent up towards the peak. Although slightly more stable than our climb up, the hike along the ridge seemed rather precarious, bordered one one side by almost a cliff and to the other an increasingly steep slope. As always, though, the view from the top was amazing and well worth the struggle (and the mosquitoes) to get to the top. There was some debate about what rocks the ridge was named after... to the right is two of 3 or 4 candidates as the falcon of falcon ridge. I think that the one on the top looks more like a penguin than a falcon if you ask me!

Acouple of views from the top:


To our dismay, the wind was absent even from the peak, so we had a short lunch and trudged on, following the ridge a ways. Eventually we made it to what Cody coined, the "champaign of shales." There were these amazing slopes covered in a shaley rocks that we "skiied" down. It was really fun sliding down the shales -- and so much faster than hiking down. I decided I liked the term "champaign shales" because as you slide down, the shale makes a tinkling noise like the bubbles of champaign! Along the way we hit a several sections of snow. The rain jackets came out and made instant sleds that brought us down to the foot of the mountain. I think out of everything the snow and the campaign shales were my favorite parts of the day!