Of All the Places I've Never Climbed...

...within half a day's drive of home, the Deep Lake area of the Wind Rivers is very high on the list. I've been to the neighboring Cirque of the Towers twice, but Deep Lake has its own fantastic group of granite peaks, including Haystack, Steeple, and East Temple. According to Steve Bechtel's new Cirque of the Towers & Deep Lake guidebook, the Deep Lake crags have somewhat cleaner rock and better weather than the Cirque, and, most importantly, they're closer to the road: just three or four hours' walk from the trailhead—roadside cragging by Wind Rivers standards. A trip to Deep Lake would be easy to combine with routes on Sundance Pinnacle and the southeast side of Warbonnet, home to the classic Black Elk. The Bechtel book's color photos have me drooling. Hmmm, must check my calendar for August....