Wind Rivers Vacation

September 17th to the 24th, Vibin and I managed to get out into the wilderness of western Wyoming's Wind Rivers Range. There are no roads in the park, so we carried everything in on our back. It's been four years since my NOLS semester in the Yukon, so it was refreshing to put together a miniature version of that sort of expedition: planning the food, coming up with a gear list, getting topo maps, and plotting adventures. Other than a general plan of the vicinity we wanted to setup camp in -- Titcomb Basin -- we left the plan fairly open. We did, however, bring the equipment of our respective hobbies: my climbing gear and Vibin's photography gear. I had two ropes, harnesses, helmets, and all the usual protective gear. For photography, we ended up bringing a tripod, large format camera and film, a digital SLR body, a film SLR, a wide angle and a zoom lense for the SLR's, and 50mm lense for the large format. Our packs were heavy indeed.

The trip was wonderful. We passed the occasional other traveller on the trail, but we always had the feeling that all we beheld around us was temporarily our playground and nobody else's. One morning, we climbed up into a saddle to scope out Ellingwood Peak which we were considering summitting. Tucked beyond our seeing from the campsite at the lake was a beautiful alpine meadow. The only vegetation that can survive the climate was a low lying shrub with deep yellow flowers. The scene was amazing. One thing that Vib and I realized was how clear and crisp the air was. We didn't realize is how much haze, mist, or dust there is at sea level in our metropolitan home. In the morning light, everything was lit up with a clarity that was almost surreal. We described it as almost 4D, like everything we saw around us was more than real.

We didn't end up summitting Ellingwood (the descent was rather technical, something I'd have been hesitant about even roped up), but I was not heart broken. As it turned out, when we came back from Ellingwood's base, the evening sunset was amazing. The view from the meadow of the basin was gorgeous. Vibin had the idea of doing some boulder hopping photos and hence the photo above. So plan B turned out quite well, possibly better than plan A.

The only expectations I had for the trip was to get to Titcomb Basin. I knew that Mother Nature would provide plenty of stimulation, whether it be beautiful light for photography, boulders to play upon, peaks to scramble up, or just the pure feeling of the elements on the sense with none of the trappings of cilization to turn them back. You can always count on the wilderness for a good trip.