I had a blast! It was so much fun and the sights were incredible. Anyhow, I'm not that great at writing, so I'll try and let the photos say what I can't. P.S. I haven't cropped the photos so a lot of them are probably tilted and a little out of whack.
























Below is the pass where I thought I was going to fall 12,300 feet to my death... I know it doesn't look bad (the incline was roughly 75-80 degrees), but any seasoned rock climber will tell you, you don't know how bad the incline is until you rub noses with it and go cheek to cheek. The trail was impassable so we were forced to climb the last 100 vertical feet or so...











Wow, that's a lot of photos so if your not on a decent high speed line then I probably just froze your computer. Sorry, I hope you saved your work. :)

-Ellis

Well it has been quite a while since I have blogged anything. To be honest, I almost forgot about it. Anyway, I have been pretty busy and am in the middle of summer school right now. I got a 5 day break before I started, so I havnt really done anything exciting this summer so far. Despite having to work my birthday was good and fun too.

I am excited for my lil mini vacation next week. I am going to the Sierra's and I will be going on my longest backpacking trip to date, 5 days. I am so excited! I have been lookng at my gear today trying to decide what to bring and what to leave to keep my pack weight down. Next I will decide my meals and food and then Ill pack it all in and see where my pack weight is. I know this sounds easy, but considering you do not want to carry extra weight, you want to be prepared for adverse weather and other stuff. Trying to fit it in your bag and keep weight down becomes quite a science or scrutinizing task. More or less you basically have to give up creature comforts in order to save weight, and everyone is different on what they're willing to give up. Anyway, my pack weight is at about 27lbs (im definitely not an ultralight guy) right now before food and water (which is very heavy). If possible id like to get it to 25 lbs before food and water.

Well I am off to look at my food options...
-Ellis