Guildenstern Peak, photo by Rick Baugher

Hamlet's Ghost

I realized after posting 'Wildhorsin' Around' that a summit at the entrance to Wildhorse Canyon had been neglected. This 10273' Pioneer peak is positioned NW of Rosenkrance Peak, carries 333' of prominence, and has a most incredible view. As you turn off Trail Creek Road onto Copper Basin Road the pyramid of 10273' Guildenstern Peak rises dramatically in front of you. Flat topped Rosenkrance Peak is just to the left. Guildenstern is a Danish word meaning 'golden star', and in Shakespeare's Hamlet R&G were Hamlet's pseudo friends who plotted against him.

'To be or not to be'    Start this hike from the Copper Basin Road. The first part is treeless. The sagebrush covers rounded granite boulders, once the lateral moraine of Pleistocene East Fork Big Lost Glacier, where the ice could have been 400' thick. It is 3200' trailless vertical up the NW ridge to Guildenstern's limestone and shale summit. This view SE shows the final push.

Summit of Guildenstern Peak, photo by Rick Baugher

'Something's rotten in Denmark'     Here's the summit of Guildenstern looking to Rosenkrance. Shown further along the ridge is Big Black Dome. The three mile approach yielded no sign of prior human presence, yet this summit has a most intriguing rock placement. Whether just patterned rock or very old placed rock, characters like a ghostly apparition can be discerned that look something like  ~JCLB.

Wildhorse Canyon, photo by Rick Baugher