30th Birthday in the Bitterroots.

Woke up at 5am so that I could try to make the summit, get down, pack up camp, hike out to the car, drive to Missoula, and have a proper birthday celebration.

Sunrise from the top of the saddle above Wyant Lake.





Looking south over the Bitterroot Range at sunrise. That is some impressive wilderness back there.





A look up the southeast ridge to Canyon Peak. My route basically followed this ridge all the way up until right before the summit where I had to cut left (through the lighter colored granite) under the summit in order to ascend the less sketchy southwest ridge to the very top.





A couple more views back to Wyant and Canyon lakes.





You can get a good idea of what the ridge was like from these two shots. Very knife-edge in places.



The route comes up from the low spot in the ridge behind me.



High Lake and Blodgett Canyon from the summit ridge.



The last 100 feet or so to the summit was almost too sketchy without a rope or a partner. Once on the summit, I was pretty preoccupied about getting back down and so I didn't spend much time up there taking pictures. Here are two summit shots and a video.







Looking back up at Canyon Peak after descending.



Kristen had been chased out of camp by the mosquitoes. She left me a note.