May 11, 2002

Boundary Peak was the inaugural summit for the 2002 season for Scotty and I. We headed out of Reno at 5:40 am and 5 hours later we were at the eastern trailhead, and we started up the trail at 11 am. The trailhead is at about 8,800', a good start toward the summit. We plodded up the trail through the sagebrush and sand to a long, none-too-pleasant, talus slope. We slogged up this slope to the summit ridge, where we turned left and headed upward through pretty constant snow. There were a couple of short dicey sections, and we donned our crampons for the last short, steep, firm-packed stretch to the summit. Our ascent took 4 hours for the 4,500 feet, not very fast, but Scotty was running on 3 hours sleep, and I had battled a case of food poisoning the night before, so we were happy just to have made it. We tossed the frisbee, signed in, and took some photos. We considered trotting over to Montgomery, but neither one of us felt well, and we didn't have a lot of daylight left. We actually started over, but came to our senses and headed back to the car. On the way back, we managed 1,800 feet or so of glissade, which was nice. Our descent took only 2:10. We hopped in the car for the looong drive back to Reno. For Scotty's take on this peak, click here.

December 7, 2003

Scotty and I left Bridgeport, CA, around 5 am. Arrived at the 9,200' level in Queen Canyon 2 hours and 15 minutes later. We hiked up the snow and ice covered road to the Queen Saddle Trailhead, and started up the trail. There was a winter storm in the Sierra, and we were getting high winds and scattered clouds. We made the top of Boundary in 3 hours and change, signed in, and headed for Montgomery. The stretch between Boundary and Montgomery was the most difficult of the day. The snow was quite deep in places. The last little steep section before the summit was a real struggle, we were wading in snow up to our waists, all the exposed rock was loose, and the wind really picked up. We tagged the summit, headed back to Boundary, and then retraced our ascent route. The wind was steady at 60-70 knots, with frequent gusts over 100. The wind constantly knocked us off balance, especially in the exposed areas. Made the car well before dark even on this short day, and headed back to Bridgeport.