Mt. Stone

For my second Provisional Climb lead I chose Mt. Stone, which is a double peaked mountain located in the Olympic Mountains near the Hamma Hamma River.  I had been here four years ago and felt it would be an appropriate place for me to lead a climb.  This would be a step up from leading up the trail on Mt Ellinor as Mt Stone has a handful of places where we would be off trail and scrambling up rocks.

After scheduling the climb I learned that there was a washout across the road 2.5 miles before the trailhead.  So when we discovered that the road had been fixed, our climb got off to a great start.  And it continued to get better as the weather was good and the wildflowers were spectacular.  A major route finding challenge was solved when we figured out where to go once we got to the Pond of the False Prophet.

For me it was a treat to see how much my rock climbing had  improved since my last visit here.  I was amazed at the great hand and foot holds that I was finding.

Our climb did have a scary moment when one person fell and took a tumble.  Fortunately that person was OK and  able to continue down.  It was a reminder to me of some of the fine points of accident management and first aid.

Thanks to Doug Briedwell for the second photo.