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Date |
Ascent Time |
Descent Time |
| 1st Time |
02 Aug 99 |
3:14 |
2:28 |
02 Aug 99 - Turtle Mountain is the mountain which makes up Frank's Slide. There is a big story behind the slide, but I'll
let you read about it in Kane's book. The climb is basically a ridge walk. We parked as described in Kane's book,
and found the trail head to be marked with yellow flagging. The trail goes up the right side of the ridge, but
then joins the ridge in about fifteen minutes or so. There were several trails leading through the lower trees;
we just took the one most travelled. Most of the way along the ridge, you can see the first summit, but you won't
see the second summit (about 200 ft higher) until you get to the first summit. This picture was taken from where
you turn off Highway 3 into the town of Blairmore. The picture shows the back side of Turtle Mountain.
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02 Aug 99 - Here we see typical terrain on the ridge. In the circle, you can see Tina. The first summit
is also visable at the very top right corner, above the trees.
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02 Aug 99 - Here comes Tina, making her way to the first summit. I was really proud of her. After trying
Chinaman's Peak, Mt. Fairview, and the Tower of Bable, Turtle Mountain was to become her first summit. This
picture was taken from the first summit.
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02 Aug 99 - This picture (taken from the first summit) is actually more incredible than it seems online.
The picture shows the massive rock slide that occured over the town of Frank. From this picture (and from the summit),
it looks like a bunch of sand, but in reality, the "sand" is made up of large boulders, most of which are larger than
cars. Keep in mind, that the ground is over 4,000 feet below.
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02 Aug 99 - The trip to the first summit is quite easy, but to get to the second summit, you have to drop
into a rocky trench, which is a lot like navigating through glacier icefall made of rock. The route I took to
the second summit was quite difficult with much exposure. I basically went straight toward the summit. Although
the route was technically difficult, it was very direct and I made it there very quickly. Coming back, I decided
to find the trail and follow it. It was a little longer, but safer.
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02 Aug 99 - Here is the summit "stick", which has the register attached to it. Views from both
summits were nice, but I found them to be roughly the same. Alan Kane stresses that the view from the second
is better. Personally, I don't think it's worth the energy to get over there, unless of course, you need to summit
to sign the register.
Once back on the first summit, the walk down the ridge was straight forward and
rather simple.
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