The Summit of Mt. Defiance, Finally
The trail to the summit of Mt. Defiance, in the Central Cascades, is a particularly hard one: so much so that I had tried to reach the peak twice before... and did not succeed (like this time ). Yesterday though, finally, I made it to the very top and it was amazing. A little bit of background: Mt. Defiance is 5,456 feet (1,663 meters) high, which means that snow stays on its slopes for a long time. In the previous occasions, as I got higher I got through some snow fields that were in the process of melting, which means that they were both slippery and hollow: in some places there was just a layer of snow covering an empty space where the ice had already melted. It was too dangerous to continue at that point, so I had to give up twice before. This time around I did my attempt on September 1st, which means that all snow was gone for sure. Nevertheless, it is still a very tough hike: you have to walk 3,687 feet (1,124 meters) up on some very steep stretches of trail for what seems ...