Last Highlights from Glacier: First Summit

The last few weeks at Glacier were a huge blur... so much to do, so little time. And then Joachim arrived....

Needless to say, I didn't upload any photos for a while. So here are a few major highlights from those last few weeks.

First, I summited my first mountain in Glacier - Mount Henry - with Kelcey. It was incredibly challenging and I did think for some moments that I might die of fear. But in the end, I was rewarded by amazing views, and a great satisfaction that I had finally really challenged my fears and conquered my body. It finally dawned on me that mountain climbing is much more of a mental challenge than a physical challenge... Your body can hold on to the rock, but your mind can't stop thinking of the drop below you, distracting the body... If you let the fear take over, you're finished. You've got to swallow it, and trust in your body to move forward and up.

 Towards the beginning of our expedition, near Scenic Point, where you can see the course we took along the ridge-lines. First we summited Medicine Mountain, then Mt. Henry, which was the most strenuous and challenging, and then went around that unnamed peak, and then back down into the valley.

Here Kelcey scouts out a possible ascent for Mt. Henry. The dilemma: How to get up this scary cliff face? We found a "couloir" around the bend here, which is supposed to make the ascent "easy" but only makes it tolerably less scary!

 Me and Kelcey on the summit! We made it!!

And the view from the summit! Well worth it!