Melissa on Peak 2550

Melissa wants to hike up a peak in Ireland that has a similar elevation and trail distance to Peak 2550 on Mt. Verstovia, so she has become motivated to get out hiking in preparation. I figured that if we made it to the second viewpoint on her first attempt, that would be a good start. We left a little after 1pm and when we made it to the second viewpoint, she was still feeling pretty good, so we continued on up. She got a little nervous on the steep snow shortly before the peak, but managed to get up without any trouble. Getting down was not quite so trouble free. She thought it might be a good idea to sit down and slide. It wasn't. Fortunately, I grabbed on to her before she got up too much speed. She made it down spaghetti legs and all. 2.25 hours up and 2 hours down. Pretty good for her first significant hike, I thought. (She did not even complain too much about her very sore legs over the next few days.)

Location: Mt. Verstovia Trail, near Sitka, Alaska