mt. helen, 13,164

Kevin eyeing up the intro to the climb on loose, small rocks that was like ball bearings on an already steep angle.

Mt. Helen is just south of Breckenridge, between Mohawk and Crystal lakes. About 1/3 of a mile onto the wheeler trail you go hard left into the trees and find your way to a gulley that is the main way up and down.
[ mt. helen ]

Class four scrambling on this section. But, we really didn't see anything too much flatter anywhere near where we were, so up we went.

The gulley we were looking for is just up and to the left. We were worried we were getting pulled too far right. On either side of Mt. Helen are steep drop offs, so we were trying not to find any cliffs to climb up. Instead we found thousands, if not millions of flowers the whole hike up.

The ball bearings were gone, but we had a ways to go.

Kevin showing me how big his last fish was. Yeah right Kev.

Summit Views... ahhh... Looking down on Crystal Lake. You can see the road just below it.

The ridge to Father Dyer Peak. For another day...

14er Mt. Quandary was to our south. The ridge in front of it goes to Pacific Peak.

Kevin reaching the rock shelter / wind break on the top of Mt. Helen!

These flowers were blooming at 13,164 feet. Amazing.

The camera leaves the photographers hands for this shot...

This succulent was growing just below the summit.

upper mohawk lake from mt. helen

We decided to go with gravity after fighting it on the way up and jogged down in spots.