egor.gudaev
Mt. Prater
Mount Prater – Spontaneous trip with Rob on Sunday. Being stuck in Newport for the last 2 month, I haven’t been out (and about) in Sierra for quite some time, so the trip was very timely. We left LA on Saturday, aiming to beat the traffic in a lazy delayed fashion, which we did.., but that contributed to my return back at 4AM on Monday. But if that’s the price I have to pay for such a day – sign me up! We’ve started from the Red Lake TH (which still has those burned down abandoned cars from 2019 Taboose fire - quite a sad scene, particularly at night).
Last time I visited the area was when I did Split back in 2018 and at that time I told myself that there is no way I’m coming back to that sandy crap unmarked trail… short lived my memory apparently (just get me excited of that sunrise I’ll forget anything).
The temps were in low 30s and wind chill wasn’t warming us up either, but the calculation worked out well – 2AM start we were by the lower lake around 6AM and waited (tolerable) 40 min for the sunrise. When it came it rushed on a mountain by the seconds, I will never forget … – one should have been just clicking and praying for the right shot to be saved on CF, and so clicking we did…
Lakes were barely frozen and were producing that incredible sound every time something touched it (a rock or a wind… creepy feeling especially at night).
Summiting Prater is summiting Split, you just turn right after the saddle, right?.. and with 13.4k ft its 500ft shorter it should have been an easy pick.. but boy it felt like forever and miserable after 13k (that Newport life isn’t helping me). The summit register had three books spanning from early 1960’s to-date… crazy to think that my dad was 6 when someone had placed that first record up there… across the Globe, and Cuban Crisis was only about to happen…
With much respect to the summit, we were short on a daylight, so we rushed back but nothing really helped – the terrain is… is just typical Palisades – big boulders that move constantly upon every step, trying to jam your leg (my worst fear).. Cool adventure, aint coming back to Red Lake trail for another two years.
Mt. Prater
Mount Prater – Spontaneous trip with Rob on Sunday. Being stuck in Newport for the last 2 month, I haven’t been out (and about) in Sierra for quite some time, so the trip was very timely. We left LA on Saturday, aiming to beat the traffic in a lazy delayed fashion, which we did.., but that contributed to my return back at 4AM on Monday. But if that’s the price I have to pay for such a day – sign me up! We’ve started from the Red Lake TH (which still has those burned down abandoned cars from 2019 Taboose fire - quite a sad scene, particularly at night).
Last time I visited the area was when I did Split back in 2018 and at that time I told myself that there is no way I’m coming back to that sandy crap unmarked trail… short lived my memory apparently (just get me excited of that sunrise I’ll forget anything).
The temps were in low 30s and wind chill wasn’t warming us up either, but the calculation worked out well – 2AM start we were by the lower lake around 6AM and waited (tolerable) 40 min for the sunrise. When it came it rushed on a mountain by the seconds, I will never forget … – one should have been just clicking and praying for the right shot to be saved on CF, and so clicking we did…
Lakes were barely frozen and were producing that incredible sound every time something touched it (a rock or a wind… creepy feeling especially at night).
Summiting Prater is summiting Split, you just turn right after the saddle, right?.. and with 13.4k ft its 500ft shorter it should have been an easy pick.. but boy it felt like forever and miserable after 13k (that Newport life isn’t helping me). The summit register had three books spanning from early 1960’s to-date… crazy to think that my dad was 6 when someone had placed that first record up there… across the Globe, and Cuban Crisis was only about to happen…
With much respect to the summit, we were short on a daylight, so we rushed back but nothing really helped – the terrain is… is just typical Palisades – big boulders that move constantly upon every step, trying to jam your leg (my worst fear).. Cool adventure, aint coming back to Red Lake trail for another two years.