A couple of days ago, I put up a picture of Panorama Ridge, and mentioned that Black Tusk was just across the way. This is Black Tusk. A large chunk of lava. You can climb to the top of it and get, apparently, a spectacular view of the surrounding mountains. I say, "apparently" because, as you might guess, I've never climbed up there. I tried, once, but a number of thoughts came to me at the same time before I'd gotten even a quarter of the way up.

The first was that I was climbing on rock that wasn't much more solid than a dried-out sand castle. Lava does not make very good rock. It's very, very crumbly. Which means it's no good for either hand-, or foot-holds. Not a comforting thought when you're needing to climb 30 or 40 meters up (or down) a vertical chute. Especially not when your starting point was already a fairly steep, rocky slope.

Another thought was that, because of a slight bend in the chute, you can't see whether or not anyone is above you beyond a certain point. Is someone climbing down? Anyone ahead of you, going up? Hmmmm. Crumbly rock. Hmmmmm. Gravitational acceleration, um, 9."something" meters per second squared. Hmmmmm. Anything falling down that chute - rock, fellow hiker - will be moving fast when it hits you. Hmmmmm. O.K. - I'm outta here.

Call me chicken. The view from the base of the Tusk is also spectacular.