Loading ...Posted on: July 7th, 2010 Pre-season Scouting Trip
Solo Scouting Trip
This year I took advantage of the Fourth of July weekend and made a quick scouting trip to Northern California. After a seven hour drive, I arrived at the wilderness area trailhead. Since it was already dark, I slept there and took off before first light the next morning.
It took me around four hours to reach the main ridgeline about 8 miles and 2000 vertical feet above my vehicle. I know we had above average precipitation this year, but I was amazed how much snow there still littered the ground. I had a difficult time walking the trails because snow on the north-facing slopes was so deep. I found out after I got back that several of the trails in the area were closed.
The snow had thawed and frozen so many times that it made it impassible on some of the 50-degree slopes. I decided hiking the ridge tops would be the only way to get to the areas I wanted to scout. A couple miles later, I reached a spot where I had to turn around or cross an ice bank. I found the shortest, safest (or so I though) spot to cross and started chipping away footholds in the ice.
I needed to cross only 40 feet of ice to get back to the dirt and granite hillside. About half way across, my left foot slipped and a started sliding down the steep ice chute like it was a waterslide. The good news was the ice slope wasn’t very big. The bad news was below it was rock and dirt, which hurt a lot more. I slid about 50 feet before being able to dig my boots into the hillside and stop my momentum. Read the rest of this entry »