Elevation Gain: 1204 ft.
Min: 5357ft. Max: 6229 ft.
Time: 10:45 am - 2:00 pm
Weather: Cold, foggy, overcast, and rainy.
Another walk in the snow this weekend, but this was a little shorter than usual and also with the Outdoor Club I helped start at the school I work for. There were eight of us today, 5 students and 3 teachers. We began the day early, meeting near school at 7:45 am and getting on the road by 8. We were in Ashford by 9:30, where we picked up another teacher. We also rented snowshoes for one kid from the nice people at Whittaker Mountaineering. I love this store. There are really nice, knowledgeable people who know a lot about the area, and there is a really cute woman who works there too.
We were back on the road shortly and reached Paradise with no problem on the roads at all. We geared up and took off. I set my phone GPS right when we began, and I remembered to end it when we were done hiking. As we started walking the weather was really crummy. I personally try to not complain about weather. I have noticed that hiking every weekend means that you will get all the weather this area of the world has to offer. The conditions did mean, limited visibility.
The original plan was to go up past Glacier Vista, up to Panorama Point, and down onto Mazama Ridge to play. What happened was a blind walk into the white nothingness and everything-ness ahead, finding and designing some crazy fun sled runs, and cold windy conditions the higher up on the mountain we walked.
It is always fun to be out, but this was some tough weather. We wanted to head down and find, hopefully, better conditions below. A lot of the students brought sleds, and on the way down they found lots of places to have fun. We stopped on this one hill and made several runs. It was still rainy and cold.
When we got back down, we went into the visitor's center to warm up. It was only minutes later that we were eating and warming up inside. After a healthy feast, we were talking about our plans. Up at the top, we said we were going to go down to Reflection Lakes, but that was another 3~4 mile roundtrip. It was obvious the kids didn't want to, so we made the choice to head out.
A great, albeit short, day in the backcountry.
Orchid: Sled runs on the way back down.
Onion: Crummy weather...
Picture:
Google Map
No comments:
Post a Comment