August 22, 2003: round 1. I'm joined by Theresa Graham, who did Mt. Washington with me last year, and Russ Kelley, with Brian Conley acting as base camp manager and rescue team. Brian will hike into upper Park Lake on the Mineral Creek trail, set up camp, explore and wait for our radio contact. We arrive at what looks like a reasonable start for the Three Queens approach, a clearing at 2840 feet at the end of a short logging road, and start off at 12:30. Pretty quickly the thistles turn into near-impenetrable alder thickets. The west ridge looks more open and easy than the east, so we scramble OVER the trees and across the creek, and after 90 minutes emerge onto the more open ridge, about 400 yards from the cars, minus one water bottle. Really encouraging start - so much for saving some time by driving higher. The ridge is fairly steep but open, however it quickly becomes clear that our party speed isn't going to get us very far into the 21 peaks in the days we have. Theresa just doesn't have enough off-trail experience. We finally top out at the first high point at 5PM. Bypassing Three Queens Lake and Peak 5515 (which we dutifully salute!) we scramble over to Pk 6230 at 5:50PM. It's clear that we won't make camp with Brian tonight. Further up the ridge, I make radio contact and let him know. The good news is we find a beautiful camp on a heather bench perched just under the main Three Queens Peak, protected from rockfall, with a nice snow patch 50 feet away, avoiding the dreded dry camp. The next morning, confident that we can do Three Queens and make camp well before dark, we rise at a reasonable hour and are climbing around 8AM. I pick a small gully with good rock which quickly leads onto the east ridge, and am disgusted by what I see - nothing but loose rocks and blocks everywhere. Theresa is moving slower and slower as she gets more and more terrified by the exposure and loose rock. But the rock and pro is good enough where it has to be. We continue to simulclimb and at 11:15 we top out the main peak. I'm dismayed by what I see next - a gradually steepening descent ridge even looser and more exposed that the one we climbed, leading to a steep notch and a steep climb to the second peak. Theresa is really gripped now, moving in slo-mo. At 1PM it's clear she isn't going to want to climb the other two peaks, so where the ridge steepens we begin rapping down the east face, two raps to a blocky scree slope ending above cliffs. The second rap anchor was thankfully better than the first - the block actually seemed to be attached to the mountain. At 2:30 we pick our way gingerly across the scree and down into a bowl between the two peaks, with a long, steep gully descending out of the bowl. Russ suggests checking out a notch in the NE ridge. I look over and find a very steep but fairly clean gully on the other side that looks rapellable - if we can find rap stations. Is it two raps or three? Guess we'll find out, since we clearly won't get to camp before dark if we continue picking our way down the scree. Right at the end of the rope I find a clump of gnarled but healthy trees clinging to the cliff. We cling to the trees and set a rap on the biggest trunk. I've never rappelled THROUGH trees before... Yes, three raps, but I find a nice big block for the third station. Then, my worst fear - the rope gets stuck! Fortunately, Russ is able to climb up about 15 feet and free it. At 8PM we are all down to an easier scree slope. But not easy enough - Theresa is still petrified by loose stuff, and moving even slower. At 9PM as final darkness falls we are scrambling up a slope of mixed loose rocks and heather, toward a wooded ridge that should guide us right to where the PCT crosses the ridge above the lake. Russ forges ahead, finds a short gap in a rock band, and makes radio contact with Brian from the ridge top. Meanwhile, Theresa is saying over and over, "this is really dangerous!". I show her that it isn't really, that if I drop down on my tail I just sit there. Not convinced, she is really freezing up, having trouble finding the easiest footing. I try to calm her and guide her steps up, and we finally rejoin Russ on the ridge top at 10:30. I raise Brian on the radio as we start working our way down the ridge. We spot his headlamp down in the valley, and, a bit confused, I ask how far up the trail he is. "I'm in camp!". We ask him to wander up the trail to help us locate it. The ridge is more thickly wooded that I expected, and we are regulary detouring around thickets while trying to keep to the ridge top. At one point, we are clinging to trees and finding a steep drop in all directions. Hmm, this 60 foot drop is big enough to be a problem, but not big enough to show up on the topo! So we do one more rap off the trees. Finally, forging a bit ahead, I spot Brian's headlamp again - this time it's clearly a LOT closer. In minutes, at 12:15PM, we have all joined him on the PCT, very relieved and VERY tired. Of course, I manage to turn my ankle for maybe the tenth time this year on the way to camp. Nevertheless, we arrive at Brian's camp at 12:45AM, with enough energy to make some dinner before we crash. The next morning, after food and rehydration, Theresa makes the obvious decision to hike out with Brian. Russ and I strip down to the essentials and at 10:15 head up toward peak 6300, with the intent of traveling as far as we can solo safely, leaving enough time to hike out before dark. Well, the rock on this part of the ridge is as good as Three Queens was bad - in fact, we have a delightful morning of short low-5th-class boulder problems and ridge scrambling. We top Peak 6300 at 11:50, and traverse over to the first Brother at 12:45. Clearly the turnaround, it's a rappel from here. Back at Peak 6300 at 1:40, the PCT at 2PM, camp at 2:30, and cars at 6:30. Well, next time I'll try another trail out = Mineral Creek is about the worst I've ever seen - steep, loose, and lots of horse-killing holes. Next year? Maybe check out the other end at Chimney Rock - it sure looked exciting from the road. Then maybe traverse all the Lemah peaks, then start connecting everything up. One cool excursion option - looks like the Three Brothers could be traversed by one team rapping into each notch, climbing the other side, then the second team tyroleaning across - if 60M ropes reach down, up, and across, which I think they will!