After spending years admiring the Gardners from Sun Mountain Lodge, I was finally heading up valley on a 3 day climbing trip with Fay, Deb, Steve, and Sandra. We were two groups. Deb, Steve, and Sandra headed up valley in the morning. Fay and I followed a few hours later. The trail was in pretty good shape though it did have its share of blow downs and brushy crossings.
Fay and I reached Gardner Meadows around 7:30pm. The rest of our party had found a nice dry camp just below the climb. The next morning we woke to clear skies and an icy wind.
The goal for the day was to climb Mount Gardner and then head over to North Gardner. We headed directly up hill from camp and then cut left up the shoulder of the mountain.
The group took a leisurely approach to the climb enjoying the scenery.
The upper part of the mountain was a combination of climbing snow and scree.
We reached the summit in time to get a view of North Gardner before it was engulfed in the clouds.
Once the clouds took over, no one had any desire to head over to North Gardner. The wind had all but stopped. The sun wasn’t shining but the summit was quit warm. Way warmer than our camp was. Everyone settled into conversation. The next thing we knew, we had been on the summit for 3 hours. My longest summit stay ever.
We decided it was time to head back to camp.
We headed down a more direct route which involved picking our way through the cliffs before we popped back out on the snow fields.
As we dropped back into Gardner Meadows, the skies began to clear up. What a beautiful basin and a very relaxing trip.
