Unfortunately the environment had a different set of rules today. I had not expected the amount of snow that was still on the trail leading up to the summit and then on the summit ridge was still a ton of snow. To top it off it had a nice sheet of ice on it that made kicking steps very difficult. Honestly crampons would have made a huge difference. on top of this a huge storm had just begun at 10AM dropping snow and rain at the lower levels. We decided to call it a bust on the peak and head down a ways to find a place to camp.
Once down far enough for a decent place to camp it was 11AM - umm I don't want to be holed up in a tent all day long. So we decided to hike further and see if we could cut over to south willow lake. by the time we got to the cutoff is was about 11:30 (you move so much faster going down hill) by then Michelle had fallen and hurt her shoulder and I had tweaked my ankle . Whatever- we have been denied so we quit while we were ahead.
So home we went. on the way out of the canyon the rangers were closing the road up the narrows as they expected the storm to wash out the road and make it impassable (well that is one lucky thing right). In short we went for a 7 mile hike in nasty weather with 35lbs packs on our backs :)..
Here are some pics!
1 comment:
Major Suckage! Well at least you got out and had an adventure....better than being locked up in the house
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