Mt. Scott 8-16-2010

To date, this is the highest ascent I've accomplished. 8,934'. The surprise for me was how fast I was able to complete the roundtrip, just about 3.5 hours for a 5 mile hike with about a 1900' vertical gain. Mt. Scott is the tallest mountain in Crater Lake National Park, so besides being #48 on the top 50 list of tallest Oregon peaks, I'd never been to Crater Lake yet. Tried to get going out of here as early as I could, since the weather forecast was calling for a 20% chance of thunderstorms after 11am in that area. I arrived at the trailhead around 10:30, and from the parking area, I could tell this was gonna be a grueling hike. The trail starts up the West side and hooks around the side of the ridge coming down from the peak, so it is a steady uphill right from the get go. There is no flat, no switchback, no nothing except uphill for about the first mile. After that it becomes switchbacks up until the last ridge to the peak, which is a knife edge saddle for about an eighth of a mile. Once I made it to the top, I met up with another group of college age guys that started about the same time, and took a rest with them and snapped some pics from the top. I was so intent on reaching the summit that I didn't even take the camera out until the top, so the pics are all take on the return trip. Didn't start clouding up really until I was heading down, but even then the weather was perfect. Talked with a few really nice people heading up and down, and there were quite a few hikers that day. Made my way around the full loop of Crater Lake before heading home, quite a sight to see.

And good advice for anyone climbing...............