Trip Report

Saturday evening nine of us met at Diamond Lake and camped at the south lake campground. It is newly improved with many sites. Sunday morning we all had a leisurely breakfast at the resort restaurant and then started up the mountain. It was very warm and a high overcast was rolling in. At 8000 feet we roped up due to new snow underfoot. So much snow in fact, that we walked one-third of the way up on the pinnacle without knowing. All nine climbers made the summit. We remained roped up since the amount of snow seemed to make the little summit area extra small. Nobody moved around much!

We all had lunch and watched Bobby and Shawn each fly a balsawood glider off the peak. We watched one glide around for over 8 minutes. Then the white-out came. Clouds instantly materialized around the summit and we started down. Just as we cleared the pinnacle it started to snow - heavily. Stayed roped up all the way down to timberline because of snow and poor visibility. Fortunately there was no wind... followed tracks down. Almost back to the, cars, the snow turned to rain - everyone wet.

Stopped again at the friendly resort restaurant and changed clothes and had hot coffee. That made up for the rain. First time climbers (on any mountain) were David Collier and Jan Middleswart. The Thielsen climbing and glider throwing group was: David Collier, Brian and Lee Hatch, Jan Middleswart, Parker Riddle, Shawn Reiersgaard, Velma Shirk, Bobby and Dick Moffitt, leader.