Sometime in early August we each left in our own cars driving side by side. I was going to L.A. after we were done because that is where my girlfriend (now wife)was at and Shane was going back to Winona. We of course had to stop and get the Megabuddies on the way out of town to keep with our skydiving ritual.

Our first major stop was Devil's Tower in Wyoming. We pulled in at about 3 AM and parked up by the tower. It was so dark we couldn't even see it. The next morning we woke up at about 5 AM and the tower was infront of us. It was HUGE. We did some bouldering but didn't have the time or equipment to climb it. We'll be back We drove on to YYYYYYY (I'm not still not telling) and stayed at the KOA. The pool felt great after that long drive.

The next day we met our group in YYYYYY and packed our packs (I think mine weighed in at over 70 lbs.). We drove up to the trail head and started walking. I love the mountains in YYYYYY so much. I have been there several times, even before this trip. I had previously summited ZZZZZZ peak, the highest peak in the range at just over 13,000 feet. I was excited. We still had 2 more days of walking though until we reached base camp.

One day before we reached base camp, we where hit by a snow storm and strong winds. The winds sounded like thunder claps as it hit the peak above us. We were just on the edge of the tree line.

We thought this could be the end of our trip. Fortunatly, it was warm the next day (about 50 degrees and WINDY) and the snow all melted in the early morning. Unfortunatly Shane and I were in a 3 season tent. We had to build a little snow wall around it to keep the wind and snow from blowing in. I wish we would have had the Tobaggon of DEATH! . We could have broken the sound barrier on it.

The next day we established base camp at about 10,000 feet. Now it was hot for several days and the couloir we were planning to climb to the peak was melting (It is the snow feild directly behind Shane in the picture below). We decided to take the rock route first. We did somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 pitches and reached the top of an un-named peak. The weather started looking bad so we couldn't make it to the peak we originally wanted to. We think we reached about 12,000 feet. About half of the climb didn't require ropes because it was tallus.

Here is a picture of Shane being all Hardcore on the Mountain.

And now for the SNOW!!!

Since most of us didn't have much experience in doing alpine ascents we spent a day at the bottom of the couloir playing with the equipment.

Fortunatly we were all from Minnesota and Wisconsin so we were very familar with how to walk in snow, just not at really steep grades. We practiced our self arrest (you need this to live). Here is a picture of Shane demonstrating.

That night, five of us tied our selves in, put on our crampons, grabbed our iceaxes, and headed out. Sorry there aren't any pictures. Couloirs are climbed at night because the snow is more stable when the sun isn't up. We left at around 1:00 AM and returned around 4:00 AM to the spot where we bivied. Biviing is basically just sleeping in your sleeping bag with no tent. You can also bivi in other things like your pack if it is an emergency. Here we are waking up the next morning.

After this we hung out at base camp for another day to rest, then we packed out. Originally we were suppost to meet the other group at the top. We ran into a slight problem though. Half way up the couloir, we ran into a small river. It was running under the snow and was definitly a dangerous situation. We booked it back. Better luck next time.

If you really want to know where we went, follow this link to Vertical Stronghold and Dairyland Expeditions, LLC. There you will find out more about the trip I went on and how you can go on a similar trip.