After a foot of snow on Thursday, I embarked on my first winter hang.
I was on XC Skis with my pack and was headed towards my summer hang spot. Weather was beautiful - wind at my back and sunny. The snow, however, was not. I felt like an ice breaker, moving through knee deep wet cement formed into chunks. I nearly lost my pole - it went into deep snow and would not come out. Apparently the heavy, wet snow had essentially flash freeze around it. So, I had to get on my knees and dig about 2 - 3 feet down with my hands to free it.
Needless to say, 3 hours later and I was still probably an hour from my campsite (in the summer, it takes maybe 1.5hrs to get there). And then I had to go up a hill. I bit it pretty hard going down a dip on the top, scraped up my leg. So I decided I was exhausted and would go back down the hill, make my camp on the side of a ridge overlooking the creek and meadow I had just crossed. I took my skis off to walk down the hill - far too steep to take on my XC skis - and mostly hit solid snow, but my leg went down to the waist at one point. And flash-freeze like my pole. I could not pull out. So had to sit down and dig 2 - 3 feet down into the wet, ice-ridden snow until I could free myself. Did I mention how tiring it is to dig that much snow by hand with a pack on your back?
I got camp set up and discovered that scraping my shovel across the top of the snow would separate the moist layer from the frozen layer, into little blocks. The wind was blowing up valley so I made a snow wall on that side of my Tarp and the open area, as I could not set up perfectly against the wind.
Exhausted and soaked, I was on my way to freezing. The effort put into moving through that snow had made me soaked to the skin. I did not have any dry layers to change into - only more, warmer outer layers to put on. I put them on, boiled some water, ate some dinner, got in my hammock, and proceeded to freeze as the sun went over the horizon. Then the wind changed, flash freezing the wet snow as it rolled off the Mtn from the North. Not good, I thought, and I knew I was in trouble. No cold spots in the hammock, but I was getting colder and colder.
I needed to bail out, but I was exhausted.
Had one bar of reception and got on the horn with Mtn. Rescue (around 7PM my time). Phone didn't last in the cold, so I didn't know if they were going to come out looking for me. I broke camp (my tracks were the only ones out here, so if they were looking for me, they'd surely be following them). The temp had dropped (i think it was below 0'f where I was...somewhere above 9,000ft elevation) so much that the snow had virtually frozen over. It may have taken me 3hrs to get to where I camped, but I only think it took me about an hour to get down, though I am not entirely sure.
It was both the most eerie, scarey, and coolest ski of my life. Pitch black, could only see 5 yards ahead of me with my headlamp, my previous tracks coming out of the darkness along with odd shapes covered in snow (rocks, trees, etc). I think I did begin to hallucinate at some point and am pretty sure I was dehydrated despite drinking 1.5 nalgene bottles. But I got to the ancient miners huts. I layed down in the corner, the only spot semi out of the now howling wind and spread my emergency blanket on the ground (wooden floor), got in my sleeping bag, but my TQ on top, and then my UQ on top of that, and wrapped myself (head included) under my tarp. It was warmer but I started to get the shivers pretty bad. Sometime around 11 I tried my phone again - it had warmed up enough to turn back on! I had less then 20% battery remaining and 2 bars of reception, so was able to get on the horn again with Mtn. Rescue/Police. They sent a Deputy up a Mtn Road to a carpark that was maybe 10 minutes away from where I was (also my start point) so I broke 'camp' and skied half the way (fell twice, and had almost no energy to get back up) before taking the skis off and walking out. Amazing what snow can do - the same snow was thigh deep earlier when I had set off, now it was rock solid.
Got in the Deputies truck, riding shotgun, and started to get the feeling back in my fingers and toes. Was more relieved to get my pack off and about 15 minutes later he had driven me home. Walked in around midnight, base layer was still wet, my ski socks were still wet and had soaked through the wool socks I had put on them. Took a nice hot shower, then went to bed with my space heater turned on. Wake up this morning, so nice and warm and didn't want to get out of bed.
I did take pictures and will see about getting them posted at some point.
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