This weekend was our team’s first overnight outing, and my first time doing an overnight trip!

Our goal was to summit Sperry Peak the first day, and then reach Vesper Peak the second day. Saturday started beautifully, the skies were clear for our hike up Headlee Pass

The morning light on the rock faces of Sperry were also lovely

It had snowed a bit the night before, so the hills were dusted in white

However, once we made it up to our camp by Vesper, the clouds rolled in, started dumping snow, and caused some white-outs. We tried to make progress on Sperry Peak, but we ended up turned back after needing to rope up for some sections. As we returned to our camp, Team 7 was returning from their successful summit of Vesper Peak

Team 7 camp

Our dinner table

Funny thing… during dinner, the clouds cleared, and we got a decent golden hour display on Sperry…

The next day, we had an “alpine start” which meant we were up at 4:50am, and moving by 5am. I was grumpy until the sunrise started…

THE LIGHT!!!

MORE LIGHT!!!

ONE MORE TIME!!! cuz I can’t decide which photo I like better…

Instructor Amanda makin’ sure everything’s in order

Instructors Jet and Leonard being chatterboxes on the mountain

On the summit of Vesper!

 

Here are some views from the top! Clouds had moved in, which flattened out the lighting, so I took some liberties in post… Here are views of Copper Lake and Mt. Baker

I’m not sure which peaks these were… but they looked splendid

Mt Rainier sighting! The features in the foreground remind me of Val Gardena…