Each year I mountain hike at least two or three peaks in the western United States. Pictured here is me resting after an arduous (hard!) climb to the top of Mount Rose, whose elevation is about 11,000 feet above sea level. It's the highest peak close to my home in Sparks, Nevada.
At the summit, the ground is littered with slate-like rock, which other hikers over the years, have gathered and made a wind break kind of a dugout. It wasn't windy the day of my hike, but the dugout provided its own kind of comfort.