Brutal day up on the mountain. I thought that with the weekend perhaps some of the trail would be packed out, but that was not the case. Getting up to the summer trailhead was not a problem, but once over the bridge, things got serious. There is about 10-14' of fresh across the entire trail, with sections both down low and up high where I was up to my waist. In a couple places up higher where I could not find the trail, I was forced to wade across large sections of deep snow. The only way at some points was to spread out on my stomach to not sink and scooch along before postholing in bottomless powder. This was by far the hardest trip yet. Still, a great day up in the snowy mist, lost in the clouds with no real sense of direction. There is magic up high in these kinds of conditions - fear that is right up front. The key is to keep the fear happy and not let it go to panic.
A large herd on the shoulders of Kelso Mountain...
Top of Grays...
Top of Torreys, exhausted....
Looking down over the edge into nothing...
This is the way down...
The key is to keep the fear happy and not let it go to panic.
ReplyDeleteUh ... impressive. Way understated as to what you did.
Thanks GZ, I really appreciate your support.
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