Working Our Way to the Top

Unless you are content to stay on the well-worn trails in the high mountains, you will find yourself scrambling up the sides of the mountains and picking out a trail over rock falls and talus slopes. Mountains, by their very nature, are high and steep. I often find myself in situations where the exposure to falls involves hundreds, perhaps thousands, of feet. It is usually easier to climb through the trees because the rocks are more stable, but it is also hard to avoid the loose rocks of the talus slopes if you want to make any progress. On this occasion, we did not make the top of the ridge, but that was not our objective in any case.