At the summit. Frank had just knocked a couple rocks loose,
which attracted considerable attention from the two people already on the
summit.
Myself with Glacier Peak in the background. It was while climbing
Glacier with Mark about two years earlier that I first espyed Sloan and
decided I should climb it someday.
A crowded summit: Juan, Frank, Mark, Sherry, Greg.
Climbing back down the corkscrew.
Sherry being a heroine in the moat on the ledge.
Emerging back onto the snow. We set up a belay here.
Note to self and anyone else who might read this: If you ever
bury an ice axe as a deadman for a belay always
use a runner instead of just tying the end of the rope to it. That
way if it turns out you need a second rope you'll save yourself a bunch
of problems.
Looking back - the route is in red.
We didn't get back to the cars till around 11 pm. Mark and Sherry
decided to camp out an extra night while the rest of us piled into Frank's
truck and headed out. Half way down the dirt road our exit was blocked
by the completely burned out remains of a huge van! The police had
been there and left some stickers on it but hadn't moved it. It looked
like we might be spending the night as well. Then on the second try
Frank was able to push it out of the way with his truck. Then on
the Mountain Loop Highway disaster struck again. Only a flat tire
but for various mechanical reasons we don't need to go into we couldn't
fix it. An extemely kind roadside camper (it was about 2 in the morning
by now) drove Frank to Granite Falls where he called his wife who rescued
us. I was eventually driving back to Seattle trying to beat sunrise
out of a point of pride. Like a stranded vampire I didn't make it.
It was 5 am and the sun was beating into my bedroom by the time I hit the
sack - a full 24 hour day.