The General

Location: Frank Church Wilderness of No Return
Date: August, 2009
Expedition Members: Daniel Patchin, Sam Rust, Barak Watson
Goal: Use a possibly unattempted route to get into Mystery Lake and summit The General.


Sam had suggested the area due to wanting to scout for elk, and the rugged terrain and peaks proved a worthwhile adventure. While the area is remote, there is not much technical climbing involved... normally.

Since our goal was to travel the road less traveled (for that matter, let's just get rid of the road altogether) We were not overly concerned with planning a route, instead letting our direction be determined by whichever peak or ledge of rocks appeared most appealing at the moment.  This served as consistent method of making our trip more interesting, culminating with the descent into Mystery Lake.

The descent proved to be more technical than we had gear for, but we more than made up for it in effort and a few blind leaps of faith accompanied by lots of prayer.  We made it down without incident and were more than happy to set up camp.

We successfully made the summit of The General as well as the summit of Mt. Jordan. It was a long hike out but the trip was well worth it.

The General