Under Mummy Mountain

Aspen, ponderosa pine, blue spruce pink glacier-cut rock, scree, ravens gray jay, peregrine falcon, hawk. We climb to 11,000 feet in three days, camp at Lawn Lake for three days. Alpine tundra. Elk, bighorn sheep, marmot. Tileston Meadows, ticks in grass, rock face of Mummy Mountain. Binoculars show pink cracks in gray rock. Stoke gas stoves, play cards. Boil water, set up tarps, lay out sleeping bags, hang bear bag. Watch crescent moon slice into Fairchild Mountain. Moonlight makes a mosque of the rocks. Yellow aspen splash in dark green spruce and pine. Gullies where streams slash during spring snowmelt. One rock, feather or flower worth more than money. Need no wallet, keys. Just clothes for fur. All day climb toward saddle to see what's on other side. One hawk floating among bare peaks and over valleys. Wind at 13,000 feet turns to sleet. Turn back from peak, take boulders two at a time down. Winter moves into mountains. Then we fly from Denver to New York where it's still summer.