"Choose-Your-Adventure" Post-Trip Wrap

It was just before sunset when we reached the summit of Alta Peak, an 11,204-foot mountain deep in Sequoia National Park. The Gear Junkie’s Choose-Your-Adventure Sweepstakes trip — an adventure-travel contest won in December by Matt Eder of Portland, Ore. — was reaching its climax early. It was Saturday, Feb. 21, and anticipated weather moving in the next morning prompted the group to make an early attempt at the tall pyramid of rock overlooking Emerald Lake.

REI Adventures’ Sequoia Winter Mountaineering Clinic is a three-day trip that combines instruction in snow camping, mountaineering, and backcountry travel skills with the ascent of a bonafide 11,000-foot peak. Our group, including Choose-Your-Adventure winner Matt Eder, his friend, Heather Gough, guide David Cressman, and two REI corporate adventurers, Courtney Coe and Tim Loftus, trudged under heavy packs and in deep snow for miles each day. We dug out tent platforms, made a kitchen in the snow, and ate dinner each night under an utter black Sierra sky.

Watch for my full trip report later this week, including a gear report and photos from the after party, sponsored by LazyMan, where we celebrated the weekend’s accomplishments. For now, here are a few photos from the adventure, an epic three days in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Sequoia National Park.