Wednesday, February 12, 2014

NEW BLOG

This has been a great blog but after spending the last few months working with my wife we decided to blog as a family instead of separate. FIND US HERE.
CHRISTENSENSTRONG

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Our Four and Seven year old girls scaled the 11,051 ft Sugar Loaf Mountain

Last night Maren, Hazel and I left for an adventure. Mom and baby Clara stayed home. We drove up to Alta Ski Resort and parked our truck near the end of the road.

We jumped on the trail to "Cecret Lake". Once we arrived we only had a few minutes to find a campsite and set up the tent before the rains came. It was fun. I got the tent up and sealed just as it was really starting to come down. We spent a couple hours reading stories and talking before the rained stopped.

I jumped out and cooked our dinner on this cool little stove called a Jetboil. We had to let it sit for a while as the boiling water re-hydrated our dinner. We sat on the edge of the lake at dusk. By the time we were done it was very dark and the clouds had surrounded the mountains around us and were dipping down into the basin we were in. At one point just before getting up we heard a loud cracking sound and looked up the mountain ahead of us to watch part of the mountain give way. Rocks tumbled down for about a minute until all was silent again.

We jumped back in the tent, read a few more stories, and laid down for bed. The girls fell asleep quickly and I laid there listening to the rain hit the tent. It rained off and on all night long. I slept off and on all night long as well. The girls slept well and we all were up by 7 am.

The skies had cleared and so we ate breakfast on the rocks overlooking the lake. We then set off on our goal to concur Sugar Loaf Mountain. The climb was a couple miles to the top. It was pretty steep in several sections but both our 4 and 7 year old did it. They made it 11,051 ft to the summit.

At the summit we had fun making a video, taking pictures and talking about what we had done. We talked about girls being able to do hard things. We talked about prayer and how Heavenly Father helped us. We talked about how all that we could see was created under the direction of our Father in Heaven.

We then came back down the mountain, broke down our camp and hiked back to the truck. The girls are in the bath now and I am resting. It was great. I need to do this more often with my girls.

Here is our video:


Here are the photos:

Snacks for energy before we started climbing







Trail head. 1 mile to campsite and Cecret Lake



Trail head



Climbing to Cecret Lake


Resting. We were good at resting


We made it to the lake! 



We set up the tent quick and got in before the rain started



Playing games in the tent while it rained




Good morning! Time to climb Sugar Loaf mountain.

Breakfast. Blue skies and a big climb



Sunrise during breakfast


We were pirates and there was a treasure at the top of the mountain.



We scared away everything as we hiked. AAAAARRRRRR!


Moose Spotting
Moose

Moose

Getting close to the top



Steepest Part

We took several breaks

We made it! 11,051 ft










We climbed the one on the far left


Going down was much easier



Back at the truck and ready to have lunch