The forecast for the day of the hike was “freezing fog and light snow, with 20+ mph winds”. The morning of I had fought with myself as to whether I was going to attempt this solo or try again on a better day. Since it's the beginning of October, I decided that there wouldn't be a better day and that it could just get worse. Despite being super apprehensive about potentially bad weather driving up, it was mostly sunny at the trailhead when I finally parked and began my ascent. My first thought was “Huh, this doesn't seem so bad”, as my last two peaks (Gray's and Sherman) were quite a challenge. I made it up to the summit in 2.5 hours with just a bit of wind and some very light snow.
As soon as I made it to the summit, the weather turned. Suddenly there were clouds all around me (and unfortunately, no good peak views) and the wind became my biggest challenge. There were several times on my descent that I had to plant myself on the ground with my poles to avoid being knocked over by major gusts of wind, and by the time I got back to my car it was snowing heavily.
Definitely want to come back to this one when the weather is better (or maybe even on a windless snowy day!!).
Responses
Well done, @gogoclaws! Beautiful photos in spite of the weather turning at the summit. It’s amazing how different things look there in the fall!