Re: Flattop Mountain Again

Hiked the short 3 mile Mountain again and ran into two guys each carrying 50 lb pack with parasails. That was cool to see. I asked them how they did it the first time!

I also went down a fast way; glissading straight down the face. So much fun, I hiked back to the top and did it again.

Here is my glissading video:


This is the guy who went right before me. He was not hurt and I picked up his backpack on the way down:


This is the full album of pictures: Flattop Mountain





Snow Dog Rainbow:

Kewl.

The E word drives me completely bananas though!
Just below, barely, Hella.
(been meaning to put up a Hella Epic Trip Report)
Ok, I just HAD to get that off my bird brained chest.

Thanks for sharon.

I love the "This guy went right before me". I think I wouldn't be too keen to follow that...
And where are the dogs?

In response to your other thread about Eagles... well... I was hesitant to bring that up again...
but as a bird... I actually stop and still look at Robins! Birds of Prey.... ALWAYS.
Even in the Bay Area where there are loads of them.

Have fun... and I'm assuming parasailing is in your future....

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I was solo this hike so no dogs with me. I was glad to see these two young guys ready to go glissading (one to video--the other to slide) before me. I had an ice axe so I could have stopped at anytime if I needed to and I was a lot slower than the guy who tumbled. The snow is also pretty soft. I asked him to email me the video, it was too big, so he posted it to YouTube instead.

Parasailing? I figure on learning how to jump out of a plane first. It's scary stuff. Doesn't seem much different than base jumping.

Definitely not how to do it. Obviously. He's lucky he didn't break a leg.
I'm no expert... but if you end up down der... and pack still way up der...
you doing something wrong.

Keep em' coming!

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He was wearing a plastic garbage bag to make himself go faster. He strapped his pack to his front--again in an effort to go faster. It was funny how long his pack kept on rolling. I wonder if you could go down this hill with one of those sledding hill saucers (eg. Christmas Vacation)?

I am headed somewhere else this weekend. Matanuska Peak or something like that. This time we are driving a little bit further away north. With luck, and a nice day, I should get great views of Mt. McKinley which is 160 miles north of Anchorage.

On a different note, does Yosemite have a compass declination? Anchorage is 21 degrees! Um, you could get lost real quick...Even though I am hiking with the MeetUp Groups, usually 4-5 people, I'm trying not to rely on them for everything and research the routes before we go. MeetUp has been perfect to avoid pitfalls like postholing trails or even avalanche zones. VERY VERY soon we will be carrying bear spray.

...and guns are not allowed with MeetUp groups.

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chicagocwright
On a different note, does Yosemite have a compass declination? Anchorage is 21 degrees!

The 2012 USGS maps list it at about 13 1/2 degrees or so I think.

Here's a declination map for the 48 coterminous states, the 0 declination line has been moving westward over the decades and is now roughly along the line of the Mississippi River.

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ttilley
Here's a declination map for the 48 coterminous states, the 0 declination line has been moving westward over the decades and is now roughly along the line of the Mississippi River.

Nice map, thanks for posting. For anyone new to this, REI does a great free Map and Compass class in just about every store I've seen. I attended the class here in Anchorage and we spent a lot of time talking about declination.

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ttilley
Here's a declination map for the 48 coterminous states, the 0 declination line has been moving westward over the decades and is now roughly along the line of the Mississippi River.

Amazing how much the magnetic poles move

Wow that guy before you had one out of control glissade. Your's looked much safer.

Thanks for posting the photos...I really have to get up to Alaska sometime.