Sunday, March 28, 2010

Mount Dickerman Hike - Woefully Unprepared


I’ve been itching for a challenging hike for sometime now and today looked like a great day to get out into it. I didn’t make it to the top, although I got very close. The slow was getting too deep and I wasn’t prepared for it with the proper gear. Every five or six steps ended up with me hitting a soft pack and sinking up to my crotch in snow. Pretty hard hiking up a mountain in those conditions.

As you can see, it wasn’t bad at all the first mile or so. No sign of snow at all!




Here you can see some great views nearing the top.




Coming back down was pretty rough. At points, the snow trail is just a couple feet across with a steep decent on one side. Being a Saturday, I wasn’t alone on my trek. That two feet wide trail was getting pretty bad in spots and it totally gave away on me once. I must of slide 20 or 30 yards down stopped where some previous slides had deposited a lot of tree growth. This really sucked as I tried to go up the embankment but simply slide down further. I finally kept going to my right and trying to make headway back up to the trail. I totally couldn’t see bogie but he had the sense not to follow me down.

Finally, found where a previous avalanche had dropped some trees and I was able to crawl / climb my way back to the trail. Covered with dirt, sweat and a pieces of evergreen, there was bogie. Just sitting their on the trail, head cocked as if to say “What the hell dude?”. So next time, I’ll be better prepared!

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