8 July 2012 Climbing Molar

I woke up to another morning of fog so thick that I couldn't see too much beyond the edge of the pad the camp sits on. We've had some unfavorable weather these last few weeks, but I was determined to get some sort of hike in. I decided to wait and join a group that was heading out around 12:00 to hike a point called Molar. Molar is a jagged, but short peak and a nice day hike from the Haul Road. It overlooks the Atigun Gorge and one of our field sites.

Once again, the lack of trails on the North Slope made hiking seem more like play. We had to choose a route by scoping out the terrain and start climbing. The front of Molar is a vertical wall, so we knew we would have to swing to the south side of it and approach it from the back.

The ominous clouds pulled through with their threat and poured down on us at a steady rate. We quickly threw on rain gear over our bug shirts. For some reason I thought the mosquitoes might let up in the rain, but no such luck came our way. The rain gave way to a cool wind as we made our way into a valley up the south side of Molar. I switched from a bug shirt, to a rain jacket, to a fleece, and then changed my soaking wet shirt. I didn't have to second guess why I was carrying so much gear for a day hike.

We were fortunate to have close views of Dall's sheep throughout the upper portions of the hike. Dall's sheep are similar to bighorn sheep found in the lower 48, but are smaller and pure white. They stay safe from predators (bear, wolves, wolverines) by spending their time on steep, rocky slopes where predators cannot easily climb.

The skies cleared about 20 minutes before we reached the summit. My clothes were quickly drying out as the wind picked up at the summit to the point that my fleece jacket started to blow away when I set it down beside my pack.

It was tempting to stay inside on a rainy day. I'm really glad that I didn't! This was another great Arctic experience!