Can you Digs it?

Today is my brother's birfday!  Huzzah!

My present to him is this reminder of a wonderful day and his (and my) favorite mountain-

From our campsite on our first night on the Timberline Trail, the 43-mileish circumnavigation of Mt. Hood.  This is right near Mudd Fork River, looking up at the west face at sunset.  This was a great day- beautiful trails, easy river fords (don't think my feet even got wet!), 16 miles covered, happy times. 

Partway down the Elliot Glacier moraine, which the previous year had been plowed by a major landslide, looking up at the north face.  Here is a reminder of a less happy day...I popped my thermarest in a blowdown, there were some moderately frightening (and frigid) glacial river crossings, I got some bonkers heal blisters, and towards the end of the day we were confronted with this washout between us and the campsite.  Now, on the near side there was a rope to facilitate the descent of the steep and unstable moraine wall, mostly sand and ash dotted here and there with large boulders that were far from solidly buried.  So the descent was no prob.  But instead of assuming that there would also be a rope on the far side (I honestly don't think it even occurred to us...not our best moment), we decided to scramble up.  It was very much a two-steps-up, one-and-a-half-steps-back, one-wrong-step-and-you-fall-thirty-feet-into-the-river kind of thing, plus the unseating of the aforementioned boulders and a constant geysering of ash and dust directly into lungs.  Kinda rough for the end of a long day backpacking.  I think it was around 8pm when we finally made it to the camp (which, it turned out, was still about a mile away and did not have water).  Not the happiest of days, but y'know, adventure!  Sibling bonding!  General epicness!

Anyway, happy birthday bro!  I can't wait until our next mountainy adventure (much soonness!).