As I began walking, a Kea began walking next to me. Keas can be most unpleasant, as they like to steal things hanging from packs, so I kept feeling around to make things were secure. Luckily, their attention span is short, so I was able to escape the Kea. I made my way to the col/saddle and began up the ridge, which was all scree. I have mixed feelings about scree. Every 2 steps forward results in a half step back. However, if you do slip, it’s a nice slow fall, as the scree moves with you. It is also sometimes more comforting than trying to climb up rock that that has few hand/foot holds. So, I made my way pretty far up on the scree, as seen in the picture with the foot at the bottom. This is when my loose camera attachment device became an issue. Down tumbled my camera, bouncing a good 3-4 feet in the air at times. I stood there for a minute or two and debated on chasing it down, which may have been a little dangerous, going down slowly, or just continuing upward. I finally caved in and decided to head down and did so for a couple hundred feet, I’d guess. Then I had the pleasure of trying to find my camera case in a pile of rocks, which is analogous to finding a needle in a haystack. If it slipped between some rocks, I’d never find it. Finally, I gave up the search. I started to head back up after wasting a good 30 minutes. Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw a funny looking rock. Hooray!! It was the camera case, with a camera inside.
So, I continued onward. Once I got past the point where I dropped my camera, things leveled out quite nicely. The sun was out, the scenery was beautiful and things were looking positive. I got to a flat area and debated for a good 10 minutes, trying to decide if I should just turn around b/c the ridge began to look hairy again. However, I decided to give it a try and just see if it was as bad as it looked. It wasn’t! It was actually fairly easy going. I thought, wow, I may actually make it to the top. I looked down at the glacier and noticed it was a crevasse city with surrounding suburbs, so was happy to not have tried the glacier route (which I couldn’t anyhow b/c I left the ice tools/crampons back at the car). Then I came to a bit of a divot in the ridge. At the bottom, there was the glacier to my right and, oh, there is a giant piece to my left. In front was a giant rock cliff carved out by the glacier that used to be where I was standing. So, then I played in some nearby crevasses and tried to debate on whether or not I could shimmy between the rock and the glacier. However, there became a point where that was no longer possible. So finally, I gave up. The glacier was too slick to walk on without gear, which I regretfully left, and the ridge was too steep for a man who lacks good rock climbing skills, or a rope for that matter.
So, back down I went. This is where scree becomes pleasant. Essentially, you can ski down scree, using boots as a pair of skis. This is great for the knees. The only bad part is when you suddenly run into a solid rock… which happens… and did happen. So I fell on my bum and got a nice bruise. Then I headed back toward the hut. Going down a mountain always seems to take so much longer than going up for me. The anticipation of scenery isn’t there on the way down… either that or time just changes speed for me. In which case, I apologize to y’all for controlling time. So anyhow, I headed down and down and down. As I crossed a waterfall, another fellow was jumping around the rocks like a mountain goat, heading in the opposite direction. Once I finally made ¾ of my way to the Carrington hut, the mountain goat returned, bounding up and down across the rocks. At this point, the bottom of my feet were bruised, which may be hard to believe, but take my word, it can happen. 
So on the way back, I took the flood route, which goes through the forest that goes along the river valley. It was great, b/c the ground was only mud and dirt, no rocks!! I wasn’t even bothered when mud came up to my knees. Finally, I made it to the anti-crow hut, which is the last hut before the parking lot. My camera batteries were dead at this point, which may have been related to the tumble the camera took earlier in the day. So, I crossed river braid after river braid. I got to the other side of the valley where the parking lot, thinking I’d get the river crossings done in daylight. However, the river cut right across into the mountains on that side, so again I was crossing river braids. Finally, around 8:30, I made my way to the parking lot. It was dark. I dumped the water out of my boots, which act as a wonderful container. As I started driving, I realized that the sand flys made a great meal out of my legs. Then I went home and got back to the aftershocks. The trip was actually a lot of fun, tedious, but fun. The scenery was amazing. I started to realize that making it to the peak of a mountain isn’t necessarily what it’s all about.. although it does typically provide better views. As they say, the pleasure is in the trip itself, and not necessarily the destination. Anyhow, until the next adventure!... 
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