Return to the Winds (2017):
another dream in Wyoming
This is a draft. Since after 2 years I've still not edited these, I'm putting them up as is.

Click on images to see medium size or view as slideshow Images © CPBL and BSP. If I showed the best photos, they'd all be BSP's.
In 1995, as a fresh graduate of MITOC, it was in the Cirque of the Towers in the Wind River range of Wyoming, with my sister Rosalind, where I first applied my East-coast alpine skills back "home" in the West.
Thus, for me a second fantasy of 2017 became a return to the Cirque ...
with my climbing buddy Bryan.
Part of the magic of the Winds is their isolation. Access usually includes a long drive on logging roads followed by a considerable hike ...
into the alpine.
It's an amazing place for long backpacking routes.
The Winds seem like an endless juxtaposition of Baffin Island-ish rock faces, ...
sweeping green valleys, ...
and a paradise of wild flowers.
Jackass Pass is the gateway to the Cirque of the Towers.
Seven of Steck and Roper's "50 Classic Climbs of North America" are in Wyoming. Two are in the Cirque.
It's advisable to learn the way down from Pingora, in the light, before needing to do it late in the day. We watched a party spend an epic night, instead of an hour's descent.
There's no one I'll ever prefer to have belaying me.