A crew of three of us backpacked up to the Three Fingers fire lookout to do some much-needed repairs. The lookout has been standing at the summit of the south peak since 1932, although not staffed by the Forest Service since 1942. It's now maintained entirely by a group of climbers/carpenters called Friends of Three Fingers.

On this trip, we removed the old, rotten siding from the gable ends of the building and replaced it with new siding that had been primed and painted down in the valley, and flown up to the cabin by helicopter. The work was completed over the course of 4 days, much of it from climbing harnesses, given the extreme exposure and fall risk on top of the lookout. Since the lookout is in the Wilderness, no power tools are permissible in the repair work, so we worked entirely with hand brace drills, hand saws, hammers, and nails.

While there is always more work to do keeping the structure in repair, we are excited to be moving ever closer to the lookout's 100-year anniversary in 2032.