Drove up from Las Vegas, NV with the intention of viewing the solar eclipse & climbing Wyoming's highest peak with some friends from LVMC. We started our hike on Sunday (with 50 pound packs) via the Glacier Trail and hiked to a cool spot just before Star Lake, where we set up our first camp; I slept horribly.

On Monday, we packed up and hiked in to Big Meadow, where we found an awesome spot to view the eclipse! It was unreal. There was nobody around us. This was definitely an experience that I will not forget! After the eclipse, we continued on to a point just before Tarns Camp. I was exhausted and couldn't go any further that day. The good news is that there was fresh water flowing from the hillside right by camp! I got everything ready before another restless night of bad sleep.

On Tuesday, we started on the trail at 4am. Not too long after we started, we were scrambling up & down the moraine boulders. We got some beta to head past the standard route up Gooseneck Glacier and take the next gully up, towards the heavily crevassed section south of Gooseneck Pinnacle. Once we reached the crevasses, we headed north, back over to Gooseneck Glacier, where we made out way up to the bergschrund. Lori stopped at the crevasses; she wasn't feeling the climb. The snow bridge was in excellent shape, so we crossed and climbed up to the top of the snowfield - perfect snow conditions. We ascended the rocks to the top of the summit ridge, then followed the ridge to the summit, where we enjoyed a brief rest and some food. We took the same way back to the top of the snowfield, where another group that we had met on the summit was waiting. They were scared to descend the steep snow slope and didn't know how to set up protection. After explaining that the snow conditions were still really good and going over the best techniques for descending without protection, they still felt unsafe, so we hammered in a couple of pickets and set up a rappel down to the bergschrund. We carried the gear all this way; we might as well use it :) Once everyone was safely down, Beau removed the pickets and easily came down unprotected. We descended the same way and made our way back to camp.

On Wednesday morning, we packed everything up and decided that we were going to hike all the way out. It was hard! So many ups and downs! So much weight still on our backs! We took about 14 hours total to get back to the parking lot, which still had quite a few cars in it. We camped at the car, then made the 11 hour drive back to Vegas on Thursday.

This is a trip that I will never forget!