The Wind River mountains are blessed with some of the most impressive Alpine granite in the world. Home to some of the most famous climbs in North America (Wolf’s Head and Pingora), these awe inspiring towers make trekking all the gear in well worth it! It also makes the climbs a bit more daunting, looking out across the imposing landscape of the Cirque of the Towers.

We got an early Alpine start, a quick approach from base camp and a unimaginably wind-free* ascent of Haystack, a 5 pitch 5.6, topping out around 12,000 feet.

*The guide book reads, “If there is wind anywhere in the world, there will be wind on the north face of Haystack.”

From our basecamp at Clear Lake, the beginning of the north face was a quick hour scramble.

Halfway up the route the views were already amazing and the weather was uncharacteristically clear.

Summit!

From here you can see into the Cirque of the Towers (top right) and almost to our base camp at Clear Lake (bottom left)!