Lake of the Angels / Mt Stone '12,  Olympic National Park,  Aug 8, 2012 - Aug 10, 2012     page 38 / 80

Successfully past the chutes, we followed the ridge briefly until reaching a large snowfield. Several years earlier, when climbing this peak with Tom, the snow had melted sufficiently to we could walk a narrow path between a rock face and about eight feet of snow. This year there was still about twenty feet of snow, and insufficient room to walk any path next to the rock face.

The rocky ridge was too exposed for us to traverse across, and the snow slope dropped steeply, despite having ice axes along. I surveyed the area for a safer way onto the snow, so we could get to the summit bloc. None could be found, so we abandoned the climb at this point, some three hundred feet below the summit. Fortunately, I knew the views here were just as stunning!