High Noon on Sneffels

Early morning couldn’t have been clearer

with only thin clouds in the sky as we

climb up a thin and winding trail to see

alpine images glimmer on a third blue lake,

and, as we gain views of Yankee Boy Basin,

carpeted with flowers like a giant Monet

painting, we see our challenge of a rocky

scramble straight up to a tundra ledge

dotted with fellow climbers an hour ahead.

“Faites attention!” shouts a French alpinist

as several rocks tumble down toward us,

but we manage, at last, to perch ourselves

on this dizzying ledge where a marmot

greets us and a mountain bluebird flicks

out into open space across the basin so

deep below. We scamper up a steep dark

chute and circle around the base of the

summit to stand atop Mount Sneffels at

high noon where the San Juan Mountains

fill the horizon with jagged spires of dark

stone whose fissures are filled with snow.