Earlier this summer, Erika and I compared schedules to come up with one possible weekend to go climbing this summer. It also turned out to be the only rainy weekend in the last couple of months. Jim did his best to come up with something that we might be able to climb. But in the end, we ended up hanging out in the clouds for 2 days. Good thing, we all have a sense of humor.
We went to Malachite Lake in the Alpine Lakes. Our plan was to climb Malachite Peak. After we reached the lake, we had lunch and watched the clouds drop onto the lake. By the time we got our tent up, it started to rain so we all dove inside and waited for it to stop.
Around 2pm, we headed out to try and climb Malachite Peak. The ground cover was wet and slippery. The slopes were very steep. After 2-1/2 hours of going this way and that way, we had gained only 300 feet of the 2000 which lead to the summit. Jim announced that there was no way we were going to make the summit.
So we turned around and took the opportunity to teach Erika how to rappel. Then I didn’t have to downclimb the steep slope. Once back in camp, we realized it had rained off and on most of the afternoon. Good thing we were off in the trees.
We had dinner under the tree cover above the lake. Beautiful spot. Jim told Erika stories and I laughed having heard them all before.
During the night, it rained. The clouds came in and went out. In the morning, it rained and the clouds came in and out. We packed up a bunch of wet and muddy stuff then headed for the car.
All and All, it was a great weekend.
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