Paiute Peak

Mid June and the first weekend after the road to Brainard Lake opened, I thought of finishing a hike from almost two year ago. Henri, Rizwan (a CS student from Pakistan) and I left Boulder after four in order to get to the trail as early as possible when the snow is still frozen and can be walked on. This proved to be difficult for Rizwan as icy snowdrifts on the trail were quite difficult to negotiate in boots with slick soles. We took forever to ge to Blue Lake, where Rizwan agreed to wait for us while Henri and I proceeded to the summit. We ascended a steep snowfield that lead us almost to the summit. We were rewarded by great views.

Sping melt	Sping melt	Mitchell Lake	Mitchell Lake	Mitchell Lake	Mt. Toll from Mitchell Lake
Mountain scenery around Blue Lake	Mountain scenery around Blue Lake	Henri	Couloir	Couloir	Mt. Toll
Henri on the summit of Paiute Peak	Backpack on the summit	Henri and Radek on the summit	Looking toward Apache and Navajo Peaks	Climbers and Mt. Toll	Climbers and Mt. Toll
Waterfall	Waterfall	Blue Lake and eastern ridge of Pawnee Peak	Blue Lake and eastern ridge of Pawnee Peak	Blue Lake and blue sky	Blue Lake and blue sky
Blue Lake and blue sky	Blue Lake and blue sky	Blue Lake and blue sky	Blue Lake and blue sky