The toughest High Route passes have some combination of 1. extremely steep slope angle, 2. loose earth, and 3. unstable, huge or endless, disheartening stretches of talus. Snow Tongue Pass scores a solid hat trick and looking down from the top took my breath away.

Moving one at a time for the first few hundred vertical feet, the lower person must find a place out of the fall line to rest and shelter while the second person descends.

Talus is the mind (and knee) killer. But we bested the beast!