Hannegan Pass - relived

So... if you recall from the summer... i've had it out with Hannegan Pass quite a few times. To date, I had been on that trail 3 times and had reached the pass zero times (Story here). On Saturday, I was on a mission to reach said pass, and to claim it as my own and then summit something else around there depending on time and weather. We had a pretty huge weather system moving in, so my only goal was to get to that damn pass regardless of wind, snow, rain or intense heat and run as much of the way there and back as possible.

So, the book told me it would be about 5 miles to the pass and then up to Hannegan Peak with 10.2 miles of trail running and then 3000 feet of elevation gain. But here's the thing... there were no signs... and then I ended up running in a white out. So, with that being said, I ended up summiting both Hannegan Peak & Granite Peak, ran almost 14 miles and had about 3500 of elevation gain. I honestly just figured out I ran up Granite Peak when I was looking at my topo map program, and realized that Hannegan Peak actually does not have a false summit, but there's another peak (Granite) about .3 miles away... Also, before getting up to either peak, I got to the top of the pass and saw trails going everywhere, so I just started running out and back on trails until I finally saw the one I wanted to get to in the distance... which resulted in me bushwacking up a slope grabbing onto slide alders and small trees until I hit the trail I wanted.

Something I haven't mentioned yet, is that when I hit Hannegan Pass it started snowing and the wind picked up considerably. This meant that visibility went to about 300 feet quick, and it got cold. So, while running up the trail to Hannegan Peak, I couldn't see anything around me, or understanding why I ran up to two completely separate mountains.

Of course, the second I got off the summit (which was pretty darn quick) and started running back down the trail. once i got back to the pass, the storm moved over and the sun came out about 30 minutes later. Go figure.

Anyway, i'll stop rambling while attempting to piece my day together and show you some fine pictures from Saturday.

SNOW!!! typically, you can see a mountain across the creek below... not after this moved in

Grouse getting snowed on... and getting confused as I kept trying to move up the trail

storm's coming

Post-storm. Clouds parted and you could see Ruth perfectly.

Trust me, there's a Pika there. That guy was echoing "eeeeps" all the way up the valley until he could get a better look at me. Keep eeeping little guy!