I still haven't ever seen a topo of the routes, but I was captivated when I saw a report a few weeks back. It was right before Labor Day weekend with the kids, deciding where I was going to take them. It's about time for their first proper backpacking trip.

We begin with an open air bivy in a nice spot. Colder than I expected, and the kids gave me some grief about it, but they were actually good sports about it.



I had everything organized for a backpacking trip with climbing. Three harnesses, three helmets, etc... But forgot the rope! So we hung out waiting for the shop to open, made a nice breakfast at Lembert Dome. Ran into a nice guy there and actually bought a brand new 70m rope from him! Good fate.

So here's Mount Hoffman, the objective:

Kids go through funny phases. My son cracks himself up imitating this troll face, and I told him someday I'll blackmail him with his girlfriends. There's Hoffman's Thumb in the background, I think from near the trailhead.

Hanging out a May Lake on the way up:


The next morning my son and I would hop along the ridge lines of both of the peaks in the background:




I somehow missed the shortest path to the ridge line up to the saddle. So we had more time in the canyon below the saddle, above and west of May Lake.

Pretty great views along the way.

FEATURE REQUEST FOR CMAC: please get a better algorithm for shrinking pics you import. It makes panoramas look like crap, makes me want to just upload standard ratio images even when the panos are more dramatic and beautiful. But it's lost when they get shrunk down so small.




As we gained the ridge toward the summit saddle, my daughter got a fire under her and blazed off ahead, not to be seen for a while. I was worried, she was too, lesson learned to stay in sight.

This pic of my son has a perfect background overview of the glorious loop of Tenaya, Matthes, Echoes, Cathedral. I did part of it, someday will have a rematch with le_bruce.

Hard to go wrong with the views in any direction from here:

This was a pretty good slog for a first trip where they had to carry their own packs and deal with our version of the trail which was more like a climber's approach most of the time, with occasional sections where we found a better trail.

It was pretty tough to find a flat spot for camp:

No water up there so bring what you need. Going to sleep with tomorrow's objective in view:

DAY 2


My daughter opted for a slow start re-reading a Harry Potter book or something else. Both these kids lugged up a book several inches thick. They're voracious readers that fill me with pride. They even make fun of me now for how slowly I read. Anyways, my daughter hung out in the tent while I went to explore the nearest ridge and my son followed me soon after.



Not a bad view before breakfast:

(The bigger view is a 10meg pano too big to upload)


[Click to View YouTube Video]


No doubt about it, awesome start to the day, and I hope my son will look back on this time as fondly as I do. Had to check both the ridges you can see from May Lake




And heading back to make breakfast and break down camp. Mountains are usually bigger than they seem like from far away.




Phew!
Main peak and the thumb still ahead...
To be continued...