Storm King

Day 123: At 4752', Storm King Mountain towers above the "pass" of the Divide by approximately 3000'. With such a peak within proverbial "spittin' distance," the enticement wore on me for almost twenty years until I decided the temptation was too much to resist. You see, although there are roads which take you there, they are gated. The only legal access to the summit is via foot or a combination of bicycle and foot, and the round-trip distance from the only public entry point is sixteen miles. The last half mile is a combination of rock-scrambling and intense bushwhacking through tightly packed subalpine fir reprod so dense that your feet are often invisible to your eyes. The window of the route is narrow, making a GPSr with backtracking capabilities almost mandatory. And there's another catch: the entire trip must be made in daylight of a single day. Overnighting is not permitted.

Two and a half years have passed since I made my ascent. Today I look at Storm King and remember the field of lupines, arnica and Indian paintbrush which surprised me as I came into the clearing where the cell tower stands. It may not have been much as summits go, and six ascents of Mt. Rainier notwithstanding, I count that day as one of the highlights of my backcountry career.