After hiking up the headwall of the lower canyon, you finally get a closer view of the peaks and the glaciers. The split between the South (left) and North (right) halves of the Mid-Palisade Glacier is where we intended to start the route.

On the left half of the photo, about a third of the way up from the bottom you can see a cirque with a small snowfield on the far wall. That is Brainerd Lake, our intended high camp site. The ridge above it on the right is the eastern wall of Finger lake, where a couple of other parties were camped.