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 A shot of the other side. Like many of the big ones,
this one had trees growing on
it.
| |
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 Finally we made it to the lean-to and set up camp.
Originally I didn't want to bring the heavy winter tent, but
when I saw the lows for Friday night were supposed to be in
the negative single digits I changed my mind.
You can see we've got the stove going boiling water for
dinner. Being so close to the shortest day of the year, it got
dark on us quickly.
GPS Coordinates: N44 08.836 W73 51.771, 1973ft., though the
map says 2625ft. | |
|
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 Once dinner was down, we found a source or water and
started boiling water all over again to last the night.
We boiled a lot of water and probably didn't have to. We
needed it for dinner, but didn't really need it overnight.
Again, forecasts in the negative single digits, prompted us to
do it anyway. Though packed in bottle insulators, the boiled
water could provide some heat inside the
tent. | |
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 It was a very clear night. While I managed the stove
and pondered my looming freakout,
Jeff admired the stars.
| |
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 In the morning it was 10°F in the tent and -5°F
outside.
When I went to put on my down coat I found this attached to
the zipper.
Huh?
There certainly was some moisture frozen in the tent (see
blue at the foot of the tent?) from our breath all night,
but this was ridiculous.
Turns out one of Jeff's water bottles wasn't closed
properly and leaked under my sleeping pad, down to my jacket
and pants and froze.
I broke as much of the ice off as I could, but had to use
the stove to heat the last little bit out of the zipper so it
would close. A zipperless down coat, though not completely
life threatening, would be very
uncomfortable. | |
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|
 Gee look! We're boiling water again. We boiled water
for breakfast, then filled all our water bottles and
thermoses again for the day.
It took us three or three and a half hours to get out of
camp that morning.
That put us at around 10am or 10:30am for the days
hike. | |
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 I had prepared bagels with peanut butter for my
lunches on the drive up. Over night they froze solid. While
boiling water, I took advantage of the heat to thaw my lunch
for that day. Once soft I stuffed them into my pockets close
to my body to keep them soft.
| |
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 For the days hike we planned to continue on the
Orebed trail (#8) to the summit of Gothics (2.2 miles). At one
point we discussed traversing across Gotics to Armstrong and
Wolf Jaw then back down. Considering we didn't start till
after 10am, we'd be lucky to reach even Gothics.
For only being 2.2 miles, it was a decent hike. It all went
up. Near the lean-to it meandered a bit through the woods, but
soon turned toward the sky. | |
|
 Quickly it became steep and slick enough to require
use of our ice axes. We probably should have worn our
snowshoes too, but we left them back at
camp. | |
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|
 Though the elevation was ticking away quickly, it
seemed to take forever to get to the Gothics Col.
Notice I'm wearing an extra layer over the hike in the day
before? Though climbing up through the snow created a
lot of heat, it got significantly colder the higher we
went. | |
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