When we crested the ridge above Sam Mack Meadow (yet another Hobbiton), we got our first good look at the peaks we were interested in. These peaks form a cirque around the Palisade Glacier.The peaks and features you can see from here are (left to right): Mount Gayley, Glacier Notch, Mount Sill, The 'V' notch, Polemonium Peak, The 'U' notch, North Palisade, Starlight Peak, The Underhill Couloir, and Thunderbolt Peak.

Mount Gayley looks huge from here, but it's only 13,510 ft. (4117 m.). North Palisade is the tallest of this group at 14,242 ft. (4,341 m.)

Original Comments

Around this time, we had a saddening, and sobering reminder, when we saw rescue choppers haul up the body of another climber, who had died on Mt. Winchell (the right-most peak in the picture) a couple of days earlier.
-- SPoonen, 9/6/02