A few days ago, Tim emailed me about going peakbagging. The subject of the email was: "10 hours of fun on the Kenai Penninsula." Sounded good to me, so on Sunday, August 14, I met up with Tim, Trond, and Toby for a long day of hiking. We star

The first hour and a half were on an old mining road that accessed the Falls Creek drainage. We had to cross the creek a few times.

We were headed up and over that pass in the distance (and that pass was only about halfway to our destination).

Here, Trond runs near some of the cool geological features of the area. As we climbed toward the pass, the trail narrowed to single-track, and eventually disappeared. Almost no bush-whacking on this trip though, the land was open and great for running.

Tim shows us the way up to the pass.

Near the top of the pass we had walk up a small glacier.

Trond and Toby on the glacier.

After crossing the pass, we descended into this valley and made our way back up the other side, next to the creek on the left.

The descent was very steep (according to the map, the average grade was 46%), which wouldn't have been so bad except that we knew we would be climbing back up it in about 5 hours!

We saw a few families of dall sheep and mountain goats along the way.

This lake sat between the two peaks we were climbing. After climbing up to the second pass of the day, we descended to the lake, and then climbed to the saddle in background. From there, we headed up the west peak.

Toby and Trond on top of peak 5280' (the west peak). Going up this one was hard because it was all loose scree...

...but on the other hand, that made going down a lot easier and more fun!

Looking back at peak 5280' after coming down. If you look closely you can see our tracks (to the left of the slight ridge that descends from the summit to the snow).

Tim and Trond heading up the second peak, 5520'.

Trond nears the top of 5520'

When we reached the top of the second peak, this view of Snow Glacier appeared from the other side of the mountain. It jumped out at us just as we hit the top. An amazing view of an entire glacier.

Tim takes in the impressive views.

Toby, Tim, Trond and I on top of the second peak. From here it was back to the car, which was still 4 hours away. On the way back, the steep ascent and the last downhill were brutal. We were pretty sore and tired by the end, but it was a great trip. I

360 degree panoramic view from the top of 5520'.