Perfect Climb of Lazy Mountain

 This was Bella's first Lazy Mountain climb. She did great, especially since she had surgery just a couple days over 2 weeks ago and had her stitches out 4 days ago. It was an absolutely perfect day to climb Lazy. It was sunny but not warm enough to turn the hard packed snow trail to nasty mush. It stayed fairly firm the whole way up and back. Pam and her dog Dahla were also with us. The first half up the main trail, is very steep but there were good footsteps to follow so we could avoid the slick areas where people had been sliding down on the wet snow on warmer days. Bella slid down a couple of them, but I stayed off of them. I kept her on her leash all the way to the summit. The last ridge to the summit was kind of intimidating. It was the width of my foot with steep snow down each side. I kept Bella on a short leash and scurried over that as fast as I could. I really didn't want her to try exploring down either side and sending me careening down onto the steep slopes on either side. We found a nice rocky prominence on the summit and spent a few minutes sitting there admiring the view of Matanuska Peak. Bella was quite interested in exploring the rocky points, an activity I refused to allow. There was a man with a huge black dog on another rocky point near us. I made sure Bella didn't decide to start a bark fest with him! We were a little worried about how conditions may have changed for our trip down. Pam is not a fan of steep downhill and neither of us were interested in a slip sliding descent if the snow had softened. It was obvious that the less steep Lazy Moose Trail had not been packed since the last storm, so we knew the steep route was our only choice. Happily, once back to the picnic table at the halfway point, we found the snow was still firm and fairly easy going. Bella had been trying to race all the way down, so I gave up trying to keep up with her on her leash. Walking down on steep slippery snow is hard enough without someone trying to pull you down at breakneck speed. I let her off the leash most of the way down and was delighted that she obeyed me immediately when I called her to stop or come back. Once past the picnic table, Bella and I ran all the way down that last steep mile. It was invigorating and a wonderful workout. 

Bella on the Summit

Matanuska Peak from the Summit

Pam and Dahla descending from the summit