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Justin Appleby

Engineering student at Stanford. Part-time adventurer.

I took the "Face trail" up. Great leg-burner with a fantastic reward at the end - the views! I sat up there for an hour petting other hikers' dogs. I even saw a marmot pop up!

I had a great time hiking this trail! You can actually reach the opening to the Darby Ice Cave if you take a less obvious trail which forks off to the left just before the beginning of the steep ascent to the Wind Cave. Take this trail for about a mile and a half, keeping an eye out for the next big opening in the cliff band up on the right. Scramble up the steep slope and check it out when you see it! If you're up for even more, you can scramble up the cliffs to the left of the Ice Cave opening, leading to an off-trail ascent to an unnamed peak about 10,300 feet high. Just look for the couloir. Once above the cliff band, follow it due south up the ridge, keeping the cliffs on your left. Be extra careful at the cliffs and allow for a lot of time on the descent. Instead of taking the couloir down, go just to the left of it and scramble downward. Do not attempt this without some climbing or scrambling experience and sturdy hiking shoes. Car-to-car, the adventure took us 7 hours. 7:30am to 2:30pm. Pack extra water and snacks!