I tried
taking
a picture of
the thermometer in the tent, but it's mirrored. If you look close, it
looks like it was 45 degrees in the tent. My favorite is the logo
on the zipper pull - "Never Stop
Exploring".
The tent and snow in the
morning when we got
up.
Our backpacks covered in
snow.
Snowshoes.
Me
up and making water in the snow.
Jeff called me the
bagel bandit. I guess it was the expression on my
face.
This one
he calls "Praying to the hot chocolate gods." The snow was
relentless that morning. It was making us both wet and cold. Our
jackets aren't as waterproof as we would like. Nor do they
breath as well as they should. If you not getting soaked from the
outside, your sweating and soaking yourself from the inside. See
the tent already?
The solution to our
jacket conundrum is Gore-Tex XCR. We both have pants made out of
this stuff. See me sitting in the above picture? My knees are
completely dry. Same goes for my thigh where the snow is
accumulating. Can't say the same for my shoulders and back. They
were soaked and cold. The other interesting point about this
picutre are the boots. Notice no snowshoes?. After packing the snow
down the night before and letting it freeze over night, the snow
becomes hard enough for us to walk around without snowshoes and
without "post-holing" - faling through up to your knees or
worse.
Once breakfast was out of the way, we headed
out for the days hike. The plan was to hike through Avalanche pass,
to Avalanche Lake and beyond to Lake Colden. Along the way we found
these berries. It snows so much and so fast, it's able to pile up on
the berry clumps.
Here's Avalanche Pass. In 1999 when
Hurricane Floyd hit, it washed the entire hillside into the valley.
For reference, the snow is about eye level
here.