Donjek - Day 6

Expectation Pass, Atlas Pass and descent to Duke River

August 7, 2015

It started raining last night as we ate supper. It poured all night long, but let up with perfect timing just before we got up. After packing up the soggy camp, we struck out under sunny skies for Expectation Pass. The 600 meter climb was steady but never too steep, following a noisy fast flowing creek. Steps had to be taken carefully as it seemed that every rock either moved, or crumbled to dust underfoot. After a couple of breaks and three hours of climbing we reached the top and were rewarded with fantastic views in both directions; our last sight of the Donjek river to the south, and a phenomenal sub-alpine valley criss-crossed with canyons awaited us to the north. Many herds of sheep littered the valley and also peered down at us from the talus slopes high above. A long contouring traverse was made to get to the other side of the valley, which involved some steep scree mountaineering type walking. More than once today I wished I had and axe with me instead of just hiking poles. We viewed a golden eagle soaring below us, climbing high and then diving for several hundred meters, gracefully swooping back up and doing it all over again. At the far side of the valley, another climb followed to Atlas Pass, which was again a moderate slope, this time in alpine meadows. Reaching the top of this one revealed a somewhat daunting gulch (which describes both the scenery and the feeling in your stomach as you gaze downwards), which descended steeply all the way down to the Atlas river some long way below. We climbed a little higher so we could traverse some slightly less steep terrain. The ground at our feet turned out to be some shale and mud mixture that had the consistency of poo. This made for confortable walking albeit a somewhat strange sensation as we plunge stepped several hundred meters downwards in this stuff. Some parts were very steep and exposed so care had to be taken to avoid tripping to our deaths... once again I wished for my axe (I am sure the poo scree is a very efficient medium for self arrest). We all made it down safely though and then a long walk was had along Atlas creek all the way to the Duke River. This was fairly easy travel, and although we had to cross the creek several times, they were all rock hopped as it was not running very high. We made camp at the Duke River junction after a ten hour day. This was the toughest day of the trip, but provided for some awesome mountain hiking.

Climbing Expectation creek in the morning.