Trail to the summit: zigzagging through 'wall street'
From the saddle to the summit is a strenuous scramble across bare fractured rock faces. Here the mountain is stripped to its essence: rock, wind, water, gravity. The beauty is harsh, stunning. And now we face the steepest pitches of the day, climbing at over 11,000 feet in air that suddenly lacks oxygen.
The trail is covered in small loose flakes of limestone, too big to be soil or gravel, too small to be boulders. The footing is uncertain, but the trail is well marked. It ascends in long slashing diagonals where the face is open, then tightens to steep zigzags between vertical rock faces. I am not shy about using my hands to provide extra stability and a bit more boost as I labor the last mile up the west face of the mountain.