On August 4th at around 7:30AM, I set off from the Summit Creek trailhead. My goal was to traverse the Pioneer Crest from the Summit Creek trailhead to the Hyndman Creek trailhead where Derek Percoski agreed to pick me up.

First up was the Devils Bedstead West (DBW).

After an easy going ascent of DBW, the traverse to Salzburg Spitzl goes through some Class 4/Easy Class 5 terrain along some unpleasant Pioneer choss.

The ridge traverse from Salzburg Spitzl to Goat Mountain is a little shorter on better rock and easier terrain (Class 3).

The traverse from Goat Mountain to Duncan Ridge included some easier Class 2 terrain. I considered jogging some of this easier terrain. Instead, I decided to switch things up and stayed on the ridge proper after Florians Nudl. This section of the traverse crossed some exposed Class 4 sections.

From Duncan Ridge to Hyndman Peak, the route now involved fun Class 3 and 4 scrambling. I kept to the ridge proper when ascending Hyndman Peak.

The crux of the day was Hyndman Peak to Old Hyndman. Luckily, the route was still fresh in my mind from an earlier climb. Nevertheless, my previous ascent didn’t make the climb any less sketchy. The Class 5 crux moves are exposed.

From Old Hyndman to Big Basin Peak (BBP), I was looking forward to the Class 2 terrain that I could jog. This linkup is very straightforward.

As I crossed from Big Basin Peak to McIntyre Peak, I drank the last of my 1.8 liters of water. I decided to drop into Big Basin for my first fill up. This detour did not add much gain and I ended up unknowingly avoiding a tricky section along the ridge line.

McIntyre Peak to Jacqueline Peak is a popular linkup and there were no surprises on this section. I texted Derek from the summit of Jacqueline Peak and headed down. Once I was back on a trail, getting to run the rest of the way was a nice change of pace.