Do you see the mountain goat herd up there?

They hiked up that saddle, straight up to the top.

Our friend Phil is an awesome skier and had explored this area last year (he actually climbed Mt Skookum with ice axes and crampons with his skies on his back...) and wanted to go see what it looked like in the summer. It is a pretty remote area, at the end of Annie Lake Road. They drove as far as they could, then biked up 13 km on an old mine road (and carried their bikes on their shoulders to cross a few streams....) and started hiking in this incredible wilderness. They saw a herd of mountain goats and one lone caribou. Not another human for 8 hours. For JF to say that is was a tough hike, it means that it *really* was a hard hike, with loose rocks and some scrambling up using hands and feet. As you can see from the pictures (and those are phone pictures!), it was well worth the effort!

*Skookum is a Tlingit word that means "very strong". I find it quite fitting!