31 July 2021
In spite of quite hazy conditions ...
... our Trip Leaders - Boris and Ada (see the first picture) - put together a strong International Team ...
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| From the left: Keith, Sasha, Boris, Gennady, Mike, Barbara, Dragan and Piotr (missing, taking picture Ada) ... to tackle both Mt. Carnarvon and Emerald Peak.  Travelling with Dragan vel Gaggi we integrated well by teaching each other the worst swearing in both Polish and Serbo-Croatian. This served as a source of continual laughs thru the day.  We hiked together for 5.3 km (our GPSs giving somewhat longer distances), gaining about 900 meters to Hamilton Lake.  Gennady, arriving first, found time to refresh himself before the further push. He won the category "Sexy Man in the Mountains" twice so far, and this photo will likely be a strong contender for another win.  The others started photographing themselves against the impressive background of Mt. Carnarvon.  One could wonder what was more difficult: posing or taking the photos?  With Barbara we didn't want to be any worse than Boris and Ada, although we perhaps didn't accomplish the same level of elegance.  Also the Carnarvon Team showed nice cohesion (at least at this point). After a short break ...  (Sasha enjoying a sandwich on his first ever hike), led by charming Barbara and Ada ...  .... we moved toward Emerald Peak.  This is where the jokes were over. The access to the ridge was guarded by a scree and other steep terrain.  Reaching the ridge required some scrambling. Luckily this was not the first time for Keith.  On the ridge we were caught by Gaggi. Hiking with Mike to Hamilton Lake, Gaggi stayed somewhat behind, but was not willing to abandon his summit ambitions. Also Mike reached this point, but then decided to go back. He has not recovered fully yet from the break of his hip in February.  We then pushed toward the summit over this kind of terrain. It was relatively easy, though gaining another 350 meters from the Hamilton Lake came not without effort.  Soon we reached a little col between the false and the main summits of Emerald Peak. Our thoughts went to Boris and Gennady on Carnarvon, left of Ada's head.  Above the col it was pure scrambling.  It was good to have Ada with us as she did this route in the past.  The summit copula required a bit of route finding ...  ... and up and down climbing.  In the register (notice Carnarvon towering 500 meters higher) ...  ... I added the names of the summiteers, calling our group a Polish-Bosnian Expedition (sorry Ada).  While looking nostalgically toward Mt. President - the first 3000-meters peak I summitted in 2009 ...  ... I spotted a strange fellow emerging straight from the precipice. He happened to be ... Bogdan from Zywiec ... a Polish guy living in Winnipeg! Polish people, so it seems, are everywhere!  |
For a moment we were considering going down straight toward Emerald Lake. This route cuts about 2 hours from the descent time. However, finding the scree toward Emerald Lake to be very steep and unstable, we opted to return the same way we came up. This also required a lot of carefulness!
In a safer terrain, Barbara vel Barbie took care of a few scratches the summit left on my leg.
We were all much relieved leaving the last scree behind us.
Both Sasha ...
... and Gaggi maintained that they have not done anything as ambitious as Emerald Peak before.
In the meantime, Barbara, establishing that Keith's grandparents' name ended by -ski (they came to Scotland from Lithuania), concluded that he performed so courageously on the mountain because he was ... Polish!
Back at Hamilton Lake, we spotted a nice nymph taking a dip. She happened to be ... an Ukrainian from Vancouver! Inspired by her ...
... after a long and tedious descent, Gaggi, Sasha and Kitus decided to take a swim in Emerald Lake! With Mike and Barbara we went straight for a beer in the hostel. What a day it was, what a day!
(PR)
What a nice trip and a nice story!
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